Inside story on Roger Federer’s retirement announcement from one of the few people in the room

There were only a few people in the room when Roger Federer recorded the announcement confirming that he was retiring from tennis in 2022 – and Joe Sabia was one of them.

After weeks of speculation, Federer decided the time was right to confirm his days on the court had come to an end in mid-2o22, as was finally beaten in his long battle to overcome a persistent knee injury.

Sabia was recruited by Federer and his management team to film the final moments of his historic career, which would end a few days later with a final appearance on court at the Laver Cup in London, where he played doubles alongside his greatest rival Rafael Nadal.

Sabia was initially hired to produce a short home video for Federer and his family to remember his final days in tennis, but that quickly morphed into the feature-length Twelve Final Days documentary that has just been released to lavishly positive reviews on Amazon.

The end of a sporting career is always a traumatic experience and when you have scaled the heights of Federer, those final moments are all the more emotional.

Finding the best way to make the retirement announcement is a challenge, but Federer opted for an audio message that was released on his social media channels, confirming the news to his army of fans around the world.

Being present for a moment of tennis history was a unique experience for Sabia and his small filming team and in an exclusive interview with Tennis365 , he reveals the emotions in the room as Federer recorded his statement.

“He was nervous,” recalls Sabia, as he looks back on the recording of that iconic announcement. “He was copy editing, copy editing that right up until the moment of him recording it.

“Then I think it was really afraid of it leaking and that comes through in the film. He really did not want his fans to hear from someone else.

“It was interesting to be in the room with him when he read that statement and then interesting to see how his family reacted when we filmed them looking at the footage when we showed it to them.

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“Once he made the announcement, then he was nervous about it being released and it is all part of the experience you feel as you go on these final 12 days with him.

“Moment by moment, there’s like moments of relief and release leading up to the big one, which is his final match and the celebration on the core of his career.”

Sabia and Federer got to know each other when they filmed a piece together at Wimbledon in 2019 for Vogue and his loyalty to his friend ensured he was still a key part of the Twelve Days project, even after Oscar-winning director Asif Kapadia was attached to the project.

It is a sign of the loyalty Federer has to his friends that he ensured Sabia was central to the project and that is a key part of his personality.

“What you see is what you get with Roger,” added Sabia.

“The only thing that I can offer as hints or evidence of what this man is like towards people when there are no cameras or when they’re not athletes competing against him is when you meet him.

“And the first time I met him, he gave me a bear hug. I’m like, ‘wow that is extremely warm and disarming and comforting that he’s that willing to let the guy last to interview him know that everything’s gonna be all right’. He’s here to have some fun.

“Then he was nice enough to invite me with his close circle to kind of just have some cocktails at night and it was my birthday.

“He’s like, Happy Birthday! I’m going to talk to you for 20 minutes as my family is right there. I’m going to ask about your wife and how she’s doing.

“He has a lack of a lack of self-centred focus and I think you see that in the way that he carries himself, especially with his rivals.

“This film shows him with his rivals and the way that they carry each other knowing that it’s a chance to put down animosity, it’s a chance to put down the rivalry of it all and just see each other as men.”

Our full interview with Joe Sabia, co-director of Roger Federer: Twelve Final Days, will run on Tennis365 this week.