In 25 years of interviewing athletes, I’ve learnt that they never ask you anything back. Roger Federer is the exception. In the van to his private jet, he bombards me with questions: how badly have the gilets jaunes smashed up Paris, where I live? Do I have children? When he discovers I have twins (he has two sets, one female, one male), and that my mother, like his, came from northern Johannesburg, he grins with delight: “We could be like brothers.” He speaks near-perfect English, with some of the singsong rhythm of his native Swiss-German.
我對頂級運動員長達25年的採訪經驗是：對方從來不會反過來對我提問。但費德勒(Roger Federer)卻是個例外。在其私人噴氣飛機的包廂裏，他的問題接連不斷：法國「黃背心」(gilets jaunes)對巴黎的破壞有多嚴重？平時住在哪裏？有孩子嗎？當他得知我也有一對雙胞胎孩子（他本人有兩對孿生孩子，一對都是女兒，另一對都是兒子）、而且我母親與其母一樣同樣來自南非約翰尼斯堡北部地區時，不禁喜形於色：「我們彼此可以兄弟相稱。」他的英語近乎完美，只是間或夾帶些許其母語瑞士德語的抑揚頓挫的語調。