Roger Federer, the richest tennis player of all time, joked on yesterday that a "big mattress" could be his salvation from the current world financial meltdown.The Swiss player revealed at the Madrid Masters that he keeps a close eye on the turbulence in the world money markets.
"I've followed closely to know what's going on. It seems like the markets may come back a bit now, but I think it will take a while for things to calm down."Federer called the current upheaval a challenging time for everyone.
"I'm not a big risk-taker off the court, I work so hard and travel so much that I don't want to lose money over problems that I cannot control."
"Anyway, I have a big mattress," he joked.Earlier this week, ATP announced that Federer has surpassed Pete Sampras to become the all-time leader in career prize money earnings in men’s tennis.
The 13-time Grand Slam champion took his career earnings to over $43.3 million at the Madrid Masters this week.
American Sampras earned $43,280,489 in a glittering career that included 14 grand slam titles.
“Obviously it’s nice to have records. I didn’t play tennis because of money, that was never my drive but I have been very successful,” said Federer.Current world no. 1 Rafael Nadal is the only other active player on the top-10 career earnings list, but he has won less than half of Federer’s total.
“I’ve had an incredible run in slams lately that racks up the money and also the Masters Cup, there is a lot of money involved there."
“I guess this is also the moment when you can thank the all-time greats from back in the day when it was still amateur to have brought the game to where it is today. They have created the platform for us players today.”
Federer has been the season’s leading money winner for five straight seasons but could be displaced by Nadal.
Sampras and Ivan Lendl topped the list six times, but never five straight.
(Via AP and AFP, Image by Pierre-Philippe Marcou/AFP/Getty Images)
