Roger Federer won 20 Grand Slam titles and 103 ATP tournaments. Behind each one was someone waiting in the players’ box.
That someone is Mirka, the former Swiss tennis player he married in 2009. They met at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, when they were both representing Switzerland. She retired in 2002 because of a foot injury, and from then on she would accompany him to his tournaments, cheering him on from the players’ box.
Federer explained in an old interview how he makes it up to her for those hours. On vacation, he said, they switch roles: she is the center of attention, and he does everything she wants. If Mirka wants to go shopping for 10 hours, he goes with her because she waited for him for 10 hours at tournaments. And he summed it up this way: “You can’t always give without receiving”.
Anyone who waits for hours without anyone noticing deserves to have someone wait for them someday.