Roger Federer may have officially hung up his racket in 2022, but the dad of four says his life is still extremely busy — it’s just more of a dad kind of busy.
“Four children is a lot of work!” he tells PEOPLE with a laugh. “We have twin boys that are 10, and twin girls that are almost 15. So now I feel like it’s also a very vital time to be around them and to help them, guide them, and obviously let them also fly on their own, especially the girls.”
Federer says he loves that he gets to be with wife Mirka and the kids in the morning now, as well as when they get home from school.
“I used to have to sleep in in the mornings because of late matches or whatever. It’s completely different now,” he says. “I get to wake up when the kids do and help get them ready.”
After he puts in his work with his various brand ambassadorships, his federation and his latest project, the Prime video documentary Federer: Twelve Final Days (June 20), he’s back in dad mode.
“Then I get to connect with the kids again over their sports and homework,” he says.
The past year was also full of family vacations, including a trip to Dubai, and he also took the children to Lesotho, the small country in South Africa where he builds schools through his Roger Federer Foundation.
“It’s not all rhinos and giraffes in that part of the world, it’s a very different part of Africa. It was nice for the kids to see. I try to inspire them as well, with the philanthropic work we do.”
Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty
Federer is already thinking ahead to the rest of his summer. He recently took the family to watch him give the commencement speech at Dartmouth before he dashed to London for the premiere of Twelve Final Days.
Perhaps they’ll take a family vacation to Italy, and maybe he’ll bring the kids back to Wimbledon in July to walk the courts and revisit their old stomping grounds.
Of course, being the dad of 15-year-old girls means they’re also going to try and see Taylor Swift at her Zurich show in July.
“We went to a lot of concerts last year,” he says, noting that it was so fun to get on stage with Coldplay at their Zurich show last summer.
“I didn’t sing, I just played a little shaker thing,” he says laughing. “But we also saw [Bruce] Springsteen twice, and Elton John. This summer Taylor Swift is coming to Switzerland so of course we’ll go to that, and ACDC too.”
They’re also picking up other fun hobbies, including learning to golf together as a family, and recently they tried scuba diving.
AbacaPress / SplashNews
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
“I’m now actually able to get into everything that everybody in the family does now,” he says. “Now I can jump in the water and try scuba diving, whereas before I was like, I can’t, I need to rest. So retirement has been very, very good.”
As for what’s next? Federer says at some point he could start writing his memoir, he just needs to find the time: “I feel like I only retired five minutes ago.”
For more on Federer, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday.
