Roger Federer was speaking ahead of his Match for Africa clash against Rafael Nadal

Swiss legend Roger Federer returned to Africa for the sixth Match for Africa clash which will be played in Cape Town, South Africa.

This is a special event conducted every year for the Roger Federer Foundation, which has done a lot across the world.

Rafael Nadal will be taking on the Swiss in an exceptional singles match, but Bill Gates and Trevor Noah will also participate in a celebrity doubles match.

Federer was speaking to several journalists ahead of the game, and the maestro was asked about the lack of Sub-Saharan African stars in the rankings.

The Swiss star highlighted that another continent has a similar problem while he praised other:

“I think Asia has some similar problems. Europe has really cracked the code, even smaller countries and nations are now having a big impact, named Switzerland as one, Serbia as another one, Cyprus, Finland, there is so many of them.

“I just think that Africa being so vast and big, it’s hard to connect cities together and have the best players train together.

“I’m not sure about the quality of coaching, I’m sure here in South Africa it is stronger than in other places because of its history.”

Financial issues for rural areas

The 20-time Grand Slam champion added that finances could also play a role why children don’t take up tennis in some regions of the continent.

“It’s not easy, it’s not a cheap sport by any means, you need to have the balls, the racquet, the net, the court and all this needs to be taken care off.

“That’s not always a simple task for every country in rural areas and I was in Zambia a few years back. You are so rural, so far out that, to expect someone to be a tennis player from there. The school I went to didn’t even know what tennis was, so you already lose a big majority of population to the fact that they don’t know the game.”

Federer, however, understood the problems with some areas of the continent as he highlighted that worrying about tennis and courts wasn’t important for them as getting an education and just surviving was necessary.

The Swiss added that some countries if Africa would be able to get things right while others would struggle. However, he hoped that things would improve for the better soon.

There have been players from Algeria and Morocco doing well in the past while South Africa has had some decent stars in the past too.

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However, tennis is a costly sport to be involved in and there is a lot of work required to do before we see a Sub-Saharan Africa star breaking into the top 10 in the world.

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