Roger Federer, Andy Murray talk tennis and fatherhood. Roger Federer and Andy Murray take a break from being tennis legends to play a friendly match in Dubai and discuss fatherhood.
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Read the full Gulf News article:
http://gulfnews.com/sport/uae/tennis/daily-deuce/daily-deuce-roger-federer-andy-murray-show-a-different-side-in-dubai-1.1984924
See more at: http://gulfnews.com/gntv
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00:00World No. 1 Andy Murray and 7-time Dubai champion Roger Federer, back in Dubai for the 25th
00:11Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, took some time out for an impromptu match on the
00:15beach of Jumeirah Al Nasim Hotel, facing the iconic Burj Al Arab on Friday.
00:19Murray and Federer haven't played since the Australian Open, which saw Federer win
00:23his 18th Grand Slam title in spectacular style.
00:26With tournament director Salah Talak as umpire, the beach seemed the perfect place to arm
00:31up for the ATP tournament.
00:33The two players have had contrasting fates in Dubai.
00:35Federer has a whooping seven wins while Murray's best finish was runner-up in 2012, when lost
00:41in the final to none other than Federer himself.
00:45But the two have fatherhood in common.
00:47Murray, who welcomed his first child, a daughter, a year ago, has a lot of catching up to do
00:51to Federer, who has two sets of twins.
00:54It changed a lot because before, tennis was the only important thing, not the only important
01:03thing, but it was the most important thing.
01:06So a lot of my decisions about everything I did was based on, it was tennis first, whereas
01:12now family is the most important thing.
01:16I love winning and when I lose I still hate it, but it's not the highs of winning aren't
01:21as high and the lows of losing are not as low, it's just because when I lose I know
01:26that I get to see my daughter or find out about how she's getting on and that's obviously
01:34the most important thing.
01:35Look, it's nice to see that Novak's a father, Marinka's a father, Murray's a father, I'm
01:41a father.
01:42There's a lot of top guys now actually doing what they're doing as a parent and look, I
01:48enjoy every minute of it.
01:50I think it's wonderful that Andy became world number one after he had his daughter, so it
01:55gave him definitely extra energy with his wife and his family.
02:00Takes a lot of organisation obviously, the more kids you have, the more organisation
02:03you need.
02:04My family's here again, we're having the best time here in Dubai and we enjoy the travels
02:10and going through this whole circus, if you like, together.
02:14I really enjoy it.
02:15Tennis legend Federer remembers his beginnings as a series of quieter, more light-hearted
02:20moments while the Wimbledon, Olympic and ATP finals champion Murray remembers how it felt
02:25when he was at the start of his journey ten years ago.
02:27The first few years when I was on the tour, it was different, there's less pressure and
02:36there's less expectation and you're competing in terms that you've always wanted to and
02:42everything's new and very exciting.
02:44There's no crowd roar or anything when you win a match when you're very young, so you
02:50just think it's fun winning matches and playing tennis and having the camaraderie and practice
02:55sessions with your friends and then all of a sudden you're on the tour and you're doing
02:59essentially the same thing but just now you have live TV and you have a crowd so that's
03:02the big change and you're under the scrutiny of the press and the pressure and all that
03:06builds up.
03:07But I think because of the crowd and because of the importance of everything and now you
03:09know there's maybe sometimes no better players in the world than just a few or a handful,
03:16it's very exciting and especially the roar of the crowd really gets me emotional and
03:20makes me really want it more and show them what I can do and fight and makes you just
03:26give everything you got and so that's why I'm so thankful to all the crowds from around
03:30the world for so many years and I hope I can give them some joy back by playing well in
03:35the future too.
03:36The 25th staging of the ATP World Tour event runs from February 27 until March 4.
03:40Irish Eden Belyesa for Tabloid.