I started playing when I was six years old.
Then, when I was 14, I moved to the National Tennis Centre.
I had to speak French there, so it was quite tough at times,
but I think it was good for me.
And then when I was 16, everything happened so fast.
I did well at New York and Wimbledon,
and before I knew it, I was ranked inside the top 100.
In 2001, Roger Federer was in the early stages
of his professional career.
The 19-year-old was travelling the world
playing tournaments for 11 months of the year,
which left little time
to spend at home in Switzerland with his family.
I've been very lucky with my family.
They've helped me so much.
They supported me in every way they could,
emotionally and financially.
I wanted to follow a certain path and do things my own way,
and they completely accepted that
and let me just get on with it.
For me, it's always fun when he's at home.
He livens things up around the house.
He's always joking around with his sister,
and there just seems to be
a whole lot more going on when he's at home.
At this stage of his career, Roger was yet to win a major,
but he had broken into the top 20,
and many in the tennis world
were predicting that he'd be a future world number one.
It's great to receive these kinds of compliments.
But I have to say that throughout my career,
when I won Junior Wimbledon,
for example, people said similar things.
But at the end of the day,
you have to show that you're worthy of the praise
and actually produce the results.
Federer's sporting talent wasn't just confined to tennis.
He was also an accomplished footballer.
But aged 12, he gave up playing the game seriously
to concentrate on tennis.
However, as a lifelong supporter
of his local club, FC Basel,
the "beautiful game" remained close to his heart.
Yeah, you always dream about how amazing it would be
to score a goal here.
But when I was 12,
I had to choose between tennis and football,
and I chose tennis.
So, what did a young Roger hope to achieve
in the next couple of years?
Well, I'm 20 in August, so in two years, I'll be 22.
Maybe winning a Grand Slam? That would be nice!
I'd like to be ranked inside the top ten,
or even the top five.
There are lots of things I'd like to achieve.
But the most important thing is to keep working hard,
and then if I can achieve those goals, that would be fantastic.