NEW YORK (AP) — Roger Federer loved to win, of course, and at the peak of his career almost always did.
All those victories and trophies he piled up alone would have made Federer remembered forever in tennis, but they were only part of the reason he enjoyed playing. He liked traveling to tournaments, meeting people and making new friends, whether they were on the other side of the net or sitting in the stands.
Only after he finished competing did Federer realize how much that impacted his legacy in the sport.
“I think when you retire, I think I said it before, that there was a lot of talk also about maybe my personality and what I brought to the game overall when I wasn’t on court, which I was a little surprised,” Federer said. "I thought it was about, in the moment, forehands and backhands and saving break points and victories and all that stuff.
"But actually it becomes a little bit, not irrelevant eventually, but it’s about what were you remembered for, how did you behave in the locker rooms or in the corridors or maybe with the media, or with the tournament directors, the ball kids."
Federer will have a chance to reflect back on it all Saturday when he is enshrined in the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island.
The 45-year-old from Switzerland, who will be honored along with broadcaster and former player Mary Carillo, said it would be his first trip to Newport. That seemed surprising, given how many places he's gone for his tennis.
Sure, there was regular stops such as New York and London and Paris for Grand Slam tournaments, but there were also cities like Cape Town, South Africa, for an exhibition match against Rafael Nadal that drew nearly 52,000 fans; or Mexico City, for one against Alexander Zverev that drew more than 42,000.
Those were near the end of his career, when Federer was forced to limit his schedule for health reasons. He hated having to do so, because he liked going too many places, even ones that didn't host the biggest events.
“For me, if I look back, that’s kind of what I’m very happy about, that I went through 25 years on tour, and actually felt like I made a lot of friends and a lot of people miss me,” Federer said. "Same with fans. They come up to me and say, ‘What a shame you’re not playing anymore.’
“Then I get a flashback saying it was an amazing time, and I say it every time. I loved it, and it’s a shame I can’t be on the tour anymore. But it was a great, great time and I miss it dearly.”
The fans clearly miss Federer. When he returned to the U.S. Open this week for an exhibition, his first time playing in Flushing Meadows since 2019, the lines of fans waiting to get into Arthur Ashe Stadium resembled a night in the second week of the tournament, not well before it even began.
Federer won five straight U.S. Open titles from 2004-08, during a stretch when he compiled a 247-15 record from 2004-06 and reached a record 10 consecutive Grand Slam finals from 2005-07, winning eight. He went on to win 1,251 matches and 103 tournaments, including 20 Grand Slams.
“He’s the best I’ve ever played against,” Andre Agassi, Federer's opponent in the 2005 final, said in a video the U.S. Open showed before Federer took the court Tuesday.
The way he won, with far more flair than some stuffy champions of the past but without the temper tantrums of others, earned him accolades that his skills alone couldn't. He won the ATP Tour's sportsmanship award every year from 2004-09, and again from 2011-17, and the fan favorite award every year from 2003-21. Those came while earning prize money of nearly $130.6 million.
Federer hits sometimes with his children — he and wife Mirka are parents of two sets of twins — and tries to attend a few events a year to keep him connected to the sport.
“I’m in a very comfortable place today, but I’m still happy to be out there and being in the tennis world from time to time, because it is the glue to everything that surrounds me still today,” Federer said.
“I had the best time, had a lot of friends on tour, from players to people who were organizers, et cetera. So I hope that a lot of the players who retire also feel the same way about the game, because I care dearly.”
See AP’s full tennis coverage here
FILE - Roger Federer, of Switzerland, clenches his fist after wining a point against Feliciano Lopez, of Spain, during the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York, Sept. 2, 2017. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) — When U.S. President Donald Trump said he wanted a “piece of ice, cold and poorly located,” the people of Iceland had every reason to worry even if he was referring to Greenland.
Their concern wasn't only that the object of Trump's desire was their nearest big neighbor, but that he repeatedly called it Iceland — four times.
That gaffe, as Trump continued to press for control of Greenland earlier this year, could help push the fiercely independent Iceland and its 400,000 people closer to Europe as voters decide Saturday whether to restart talks to join the European Union.
“We can’t really trust the U.S. anymore,” said Hildur Knútsdóttir, a horror fiction writer who plans to vote in favor of EU membership. “Trump was not joking about Greenland. There was a lot of fear here in Iceland, because if he takes Greenland with force, we’re probably going to be next.”
Iceland's decision is whether to continue going it alone successfully and maintain control of precious natural resources like its lucrative and well-managed fisheries, or to strengthen ties with Europe to better insulate the country from geopolitical instability and gain economic benefits such as the more stable euro currency and lower interest rates and inflation.
Iceland, which is a member of the NATO alliance, already participates in the EU’s frictionless single market and is part of the Schengen free-travel zone.
For both sides of the debate, it's really a matter of sovereignty, said Hulda Thorisdottir, a political science professor at the University of Iceland.
Opponents argue that the nation, which won its independence from the kingdom of Denmark in 1944, enjoys all the benefits of European integration with no drawbacks. Thorisdottir said why surrender that when Iceland is doing so well already.
“The independence of Iceland is the most precious resource that we have,” said Haraldur Olafsson, a physics professor who is chairman of Heimssýn, a euroskeptic group that opposes EU membership. “The possibility of making your own law and deciding how things are done is essential.”
EU proponents, however, view it through the lens of a rapidly changing world in which shifting alliances pose a security risk. Being outside the EU makes Iceland vulnerable and that threatens its sovereignty, Thorisdottir said.
Foreign and Defense Minister Thorgerdur Katrín Gunnarsdóttir, who supports joining the EU, said that when she asks people from smaller countries such as Ireland, Finland or Luxembourg whether they feel they've lost their sovereignty, “they look at me like I’m a crazy woman” and say membership has made them stronger.
Prime Minister Kristrun Frostadottir’s center-left coalition government was elected in 2024 on a platform that backed a vote on EU membership.
Iceland's government applied for EU membership in 2009, after the country’s debt-burdened banking sector collapsed during the 2008 global financial crisis, but the decision wasn't put to voters. Accession talks were suspended in 2013 after a center-right government came to power, and formally ended in 2015.
The referendum is a first step to potentially joining the 27-nation bloc. Voters will answer a simple yes-or-no question: Should Iceland resume accession negotiations with the European Union?
If voters reject the proposal, the issue would be put to rest.
A yes vote would trigger a negotiating process with the European Commission that will assess 35 areas, from financial systems to fisheries, transport networks, agricultural regulations, and freedoms such as speech and religion.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos is in for a busy period ahead, with Montenegro and Albania deep into their accession negotiations and Ukraine and Moldova eyeing entry too.
Speaking in Zagreb earlier this week, Kos said that Iceland's accession talks could be relatively straightforward given it's already part of the single market.
“It could finalize accession negotiations in one to two years from now,” she said.
Any agreement would need to be approved by all current EU member nations, and then voters in Iceland would have the final say on whether to join.
The descendants of Vikings who settled Iceland have been living off the sea for centuries, and fishing remains part of the country's cultural identity. They fought the so-called Cod Wars with Britain to win control of their fishing grounds in the 1970s.
Their rich North Atlantic fishing grounds have always been a key sticking point to joining the EU over concerns they would have to join the Common Fisheries Policy that would allow Spanish, Dutch and other trawlers into their waters.
Any deal with the EU that doesn't protect Iceland's fishing rights is seen as dead in the water, but Gunnarsdóttir and other officials are confident any deal will offer an exemption for Iceland's fisheries.
“We are a superpower when it comes to fisheries,” she said. “We will not sign any agreement which will not underline our sovereignty and full control of our fisheries.”
Heiðrun Lind Marteinsdóttir, the CEO of Fisheries Iceland, said the seafood trade organization doesn't oppose joining the EU if there is a permanent opt-out from the fisheries policy, but she said that would be unprecedented.
“I think we need to be very realistic on the negotiation process and what we can get out of the negotiations,” she said. “To be honest, I think, we’re aiming high.”
Others in the industry are more skeptical that any protection of Icelandic fisheries would be lasting — especially for open water species like herring, capelin and mackerel that migrate between different fishing zones.
“We are going to see European fishing vessels here in Iceland,” Einar Sigurdsson, chairman of Isfelag fishing company, predicted.
The government had planned to hold the vote by next year, but moved it up after Trump’s repeated overtures about taking over Greenland, a self-governing territory of Denmark, a longtime U.S. ally.
The U.S. State Department reassured officials in Iceland that Trump meant Greenland, during his repeated slip of the tongue at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, said Gunnarsdóttir, the foreign minister.
It didn't help that William Long, the newly arrived U.S. ambassador in Reykjavik, once joked that Iceland would become the 52nd U.S. state and he'd be its governor. He apologized, but the remark prompted thousands of Icelanders to sign a petition urging the prime minister to reject his appointment.
Gunnarsdóttir said that Trump's saber-rattling emphasized the importance of the EU's collection of small and large nations standing as one with Greenland and Denmark.
“That is so important for us to see a group of like-minded nations stand together on principles and values,” she said. “That is also what I’m looking at when I see the European Union in this volatile world.”
Lorne Cook contributed to this report from Brussels.
People listen to speakers at an "Afram Island," "Forward, Iceland" rally opposing the resumption of European Union accession talks at Austurvollur in Reykjavik, Iceland, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Di Marco)
Icelandic Prime Minister Kristrun Frostadottir speaks at a public event about a referendum on whether to resume accession negotiations with the European Union in Reykjavik, Iceland, Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Di Marco)
Icelandic Prime Minister Kristrun Frostadottir speaks at a public event about a referendum on whether to resume accession negotiations with the European Union in Reykjavik, Iceland, Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Di Marco)
People hold a banner reading "No" as they listen to speakers at an "Afram Island," "Forward, Iceland," rally opposing the resumption of European Union accession talks at Austurvollur in Reykjavik, Iceland, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Di Marco)
People with Icelandic flags attend an "Afram Island", "Forward, Iceland", rally, opposing the resumption of European Union accession talks at Austurvollur in Reykjavik, Iceland, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Di Marco
A fishing boat moored at Reykjavik Harbor in Reykjavik, Iceland, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/James Brooks)
An Icelandic flag waves in the wind at Reykjavik Harbor in Reykjavik, Iceland, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/James Brooks)
Workers process fish at Visir's fish processing facility in Grindavik, Iceland, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/James Brooks)
A supporter holds a t-shirt reading, "Yes to see", at the opening of the "Yes" campaign's office in Reykjavik, Iceland, Friday, Aug. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/James Brooks)
A man holds a badge reading "See", at the opening of the "Yes" campaign's office in Reykjavik, Iceland, Friday, Aug. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/James Brooks)
