Roger Federer wrote the history of tennis, and he did it above all on the lawn courts of Wimbledon. Here he has won 8 times and he did it by displaying nothing short of extraordinary tennis.

Even so, he still has secret fears, and one of them is the fear of turning up to showbiz events in suits.

The 42-year-old tennis icon, who hung up his racket in 2022, this year attended the Academy Awards ceremony for the second time – after last going in 2016 – and said even though he loves being social it took him years to get used to dressing up for showbiz events.

He told GQ: “Just staying in the narrow tennis mind is not enough. I feel like going out and meeting people and doing different things to me is very appealing, even though I used to dread red carpets and small talk and all that stuff.”

When asked why he dreaded it, Roger said: “Just, what do you say? What are we doing here? Why do I have to wear this?

“It was all those questions when you’re a teenager, like, My God, I feel like I can’t breathe in the tie.

“So I said, look: I need to wear more suits, so I get comfortable in suits. And actually I used to make a conscious effort of wearing more ties with either just a blazer, jacket, and jeans, or ties with a cardigan, and just make sure I get used to the feeling of wearing that type of clothing.”

Roger has now got into fashion design, most recently with the California eyewear brand Oliver Peoples, with whom he has just released a line of sunglasses.

He said about his new career direction: “I think when you have a chance to work with great people, great minds, you get into this idea of how cool would it be to have your own sunglasses and, if you could, who would you choose?”

“And you’re like: Oliver Peoples, how cool would that be? California, such a distant place from Switzerland, such a different world altogether. How could we conceptualise an idea and make it come to life?

“And having spent, I dunno, 80 per cent of my life in the summer because we’re chasing the sun all year round with the tour makes me want to wear more sunglasses now. Who knows what played a role in it, but I just thought it could be something really, really fun.”