Roger Federer met his wife Mirka Vavrinec at the 2000 Sydney Olympics when they were both playing Tennis for Switzerland and have been together since. They were married in a secret ceremony in April, 2009. Mere weeks after Federer won his sixth Wimbledon title, Mirka gave birth two twin girls, named Myla Rose and Charlene Riva. In an interview following one of Federer’s Wimbeldon matches, he credited Mirka’s calm pregnant demeanor with his success, saying:
Mirka’s feeling great which obviously helps me to be more relaxed. She’s a wonderful person anyway, but I think she’s handling it really well and not going “Oh I’m pregnant, I can’t move around, please help me.”
She’s trying to be completely normal and I think that’s been really good on me. So far so good.
Mirka is a former tennis player who had sort of a crazy introduction to tennis. When Mirka was 9 years old, her father took her to see a match at Filderstadt in Germany. Mirka ended up meeting Martina Navratilova, who thought that the 9 year old looked athletic and that she should try tennis. Navratilova arranged for Mirka to be sent a raquet and also to be given her first lesson. Mirka went on to a professional career, though professional may be a bit of a stretch. The highest she was ranked at any point in her career was 76 overall before she was forced to retire from the sport due to a chronic foot injury.
