Roger Federer: So what are you going to get me for Christmas?
Rafael Nadal: You know what, I am going to come to Switzerland and play an exhibition match for your foundation
*cue in peals of laughter*
Tennis fans are unlikely to forget the iconic video of Federer and Nadal laughing away uncontrollably as they tried to film a simple video with two lines. The 2010 clip, in which the two were shooting a promo for a charity match of the Roger Federer Foundation, gave us one of the memorable shots of the two tennis greats.
In case you have forgotten, here is the iconic moment immortalised in many, many memes on Twitter.
Now, more than seven years later, Roger Federer has revealed what exactly happened to set the two tennis players off in uncontrollable laughter. At the Australian Open draw on Thursday, Federer explained that it was just the way “Nadal looked at him” in that “awkward moment.”
“So it started off by me waiting for Rafa because he always shows up late. No problem. We waited there and we were in this super tiny room. It was hot as hell in there.
“And anyway, we had the script and everybody said, ‘ok, two minutes, it’s going to be super simple. Normally you can’t mess it up’. We sit down and there’s 10-15 people in the room, ok, everything’s got to be fast because Rafa’s got to go, I’ve got to go,” he recounted.
“We sit down and I start talking, I look over to him, he looks at me, and the moment he looked at me I just couldn’t talk any more. I just thought it was so awkward at that moment, a good one, because actually it was for my charity match so I wanted it to be good,” he added.
But it was not all giggles, as the Swiss revealed that there was a bit of swearing involved as well.
“This went on for a good 20 minutes and at the end we’re even swearing a little bit because we couldn’t get it done but the other 18 minutes we’re probably just laughing like this uncontrollably,” Federer said.
And it’s not just tennis fans who love that moment. Turns out, Federer himself is fond of the outtakes.
“It was one of my favourite moments. We got it in the can in the end but what a joke of a thing that was,” he said with a grin.
