Roger Federer returned to the helipad of the Burj Al Arab Hotel where he played tennis with Andre Agassi back in 2005 to create one of the most-watched videos in the history of the sport.
The Swiss, who plays his first round match against Michael Llodra on Tuesday, went up to the famous helipad with world No.1 Novak Djokovic and the organisers of the tournament, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, and he reflected on his experience with Agassi seven years ago.
“It was amazing. We went back on the helipad with Novak the other day. For me being back up there – I mean I’ve been up there many times since, just to show friends, just to go up there myself because I think it’s one of the most incredible places in the world,” said Federer.
“It was an amazing feeling being up there again. We had this picture perfect day, no sandstorms, just clear day, no wind.
“It’s just nice being up there really because I didn’t know at the time when we were doing this that it was going to have such an impact.
“I had an idea of how we could make it better by making sure we had a helicopter that was going to film it all around to really show what kind of a platform we were playing on instead of maybe just having a picture taken from the hotel where you couldn’t really tell how high up we are. And I think that made one of the differences.
“And ever since everybody talks about it and I hear stories of people saying ‘can we play tennis here at the tennis court?’ and they tell them ‘we don’t have one’, and they’re like ‘no, no I know you do’. It’s just a myth now which is fantastic.”
The 30-year-old says that returning to the No.1 spot is one of his priorities this year. “I’m a believer that if I do things the right way it will come back. It’s a long-term goal so it doesn’t drive me on a daily basis but I feel that if I play really well from here to the US Open obviously there’s a shot.”
