Roger Federer’s Speech at 2024 Dartmouth Commencement (Transcript)

So here’s the first: effortless is a myth. I mean it, I say that as someone who has heard that word a lot. Effortless. People would say my play was effortless. Most of the time, they meant it as a compliment, but it used to frustrate me when they would say, “He barely broke a sweat,” or, “Is he even trying?” The truth is I had to work very hard to make it look easy. (View Highlight)

Self-Belief I believed in myself, but belief in yourself has to be earned. (View Highlight)

Before, I would run away from their strength. If a guy had a strong forehand, I would try to hit his backhand, but now, I would try to go after his forehand. I tried to beat the baseliners from the baseline. I tried to beat the attackers by attacking. I tried to beat the net rushers from the net. I took a chance by doing that. I said, “Why did I do it?” To amplify my game and expand my options, you need a whole arsenal of strengths. So if one of them breaks down, you’ve got something left. (View Highlight)

n tennis, perfection is impossible. In the 1,526 singles matches I played in my career, I won almost 80% of those matches. Now, I have a question for you. What percentage of points do you think I won in those matches? Only 54%. In other words, even top ranked tennis players win barely more than half of the points they play. When you lose every second point on average, you learn not to dwell on every shot. You teach yourself to think, “Okay, I double faulted. It’s only a point.” (View Highlight)

Work harder, work smarter. Remember, work smarter. (View Highlight)

Life Beyond the Court (View Highlight)

A Well-Rounded Education As a student at Dartmouth, you picked a major and went deep, but you also went wide. Engineers learned art history. Athletes even sang acapella, and computer scientists learned to speak German. (View Highlight)

Note: literally what i did lol