Roger federer: swiss star reveals inspiration for his foundation

Federer will link up with Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates for the second year in a row in a ‘Match for Africa’ exhibition against NBC News presenter Savannah Guthrie and American tennis ace

Jack Sock. Last year, Federer and Gates played a charity event against Pearl Jam musician Mike McCready and John Isner in front of 16,000 people in Seattle and raised £1.4million for the

Roger Federer Foundation. The foundation was started in 2003 and the 36-year-old has regularly looked to help raise funds for the charity. The very first Match for Africa took place in 2010

when Federer played his great rival Rafael Nadal in Zurich, Switzerland. But speaking ahead of tonight’s match, Federer was asked about why he started philanthropic work and revealed the

impact his mother had. Federer said: “What got me going 15 years ago is going to South Africa on vacation as a little boy with my mum, who is from South Africa. “She was born in

Johannesburg, the values that she taught me and my dad. “When I got into tennis and was finally able to make some money and make a name for myself, you feel fortunate and how do you share

that feeling with other people. “And I just thought education is something that really interests me. “I thought let me get stuck into early child education and hear we are so it is very

exciting.” When asked about what he has learned from Gates, Federer added: “Reading about Bill, hearing him speak about philanthropy, how passionate he with Melinda and what great [things]

they do in the world. “I’m doing it all out of passion but he’s been doing it for a long, long time and a much bigger scale and that’s super inspiring.”