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Early life

Federer was born on 8 August 1981 in Basel, Switzerland. A member of the Federer family, his Swiss father, Robert Federer, is from Berneck in the canton of St. Gallen and his Afrikaner mother, Lynette Federer (née Durand), is from Kempton Park, Gauteng, in South Africa. He has one sibling, his older sister, Diana, the mother of twins. Since Federer's mother is South African, he holds both Swiss and South African citizenship. He is related to Swiss prelate Urban Federer and Swiss politician Barbara Schmid-Federer.

As youngsters, Federer and his elder sister Diana used to accompany their parents, both of whom worked for Ciba-Geigy Pharmaceuticals, to the company's private tennis courts at the weekends, where he first played tennis at the age of three.

Soon after enrolling in school at the age of six, Federer became the best in his age group. Feeling that Federer had outgrown the Ciba club and needed to be amongst better juniors, his mother Lynette enrolled him at age eight in the elite junior programme of the Old Boys Tennis Club in Basel, where he received his initial tennis instruction from veteran Czech coach Adolf Kacovsky. Federer began using the one-handed backhand from an early age not only because Kacovsky was a fan of it, but also because all of his childhood idols, Stefan Edberg, Boris Becker, and later Pete Sampras, used the one-hander too. From ages 8 to 10, Federer received group and individual training from Kacovsky. At age 10, Federer began being taught at the club by Australian former tennis player Peter Carter. Federer has credited Carter for his "entire technique and coolness".

Federer grew up playing many sports, such as badminton, basketball, football, and tennis, but he was most taken by the latter two. He also tried skiing and swimming and spent hours playing soft tennis on the street. He credits his hand-eye coordination to the wide range of sports he played as a child. In 1993, Federer won the U12 Swiss national junior championships in Lucerne. Becoming the best junior in the country helped him decide to become a professional tennis player, so he stopped playing football at age twelve to concentrate solely on tennis, where he felt he had more control over his victories or defeats, rather than relying on the performances of his teammates. Federer was also a ball boy at his hometown Basel event, the Swiss Indoors in 1992 and 1993, and he even received a medal after the 1993 final, together with the other ballboys, from the hands of the champion Michael Stich.

He was brought to train at the Swiss National Tennis Center, then located in Ecublens in the canton of Vaud, between 1995 and 1997. It was in this new setting that he learned French at the age of 14. He completed his compulsory education at La Planta secondary school in Chavannes-près-Renens and obtained his certificate in July 1997, in the upper division, commercial studies section.