Roger Federer dazzles in first career Bay Area appearance

Roger FedererFrom his knees at the middle of the net Roger Federer struck volley after volley right back at Jack Sock until the American star finally faltered Federer just smiled It was all in fun And how could Federer not be loving life Hes the best in the world at age 36 That even sounds a bit strange to Federer himself Those are definitely special times in my life and my career Federer said The dream as a little boy was to make it one day to world No 1 but not at 36 years old I can tell you that It was probably at some point at 25 maybe if things went really wellI had a tough year in 2016 with my knee and stayed positive was resilient and fought to come back and really believed I could actually win again I didnt think it was going to be at this level Its been an unbelievable journey the last 14 months and my team has been incredible Im loving every moment that I can still stay on tour because you never know when its going to end While this doubles match didnt officially count Monday night it sure mattered to all of the children in Africa who Federer is committed to helping through his foundationFederer emerged from the tunnel of smoke and walked onto the court greeted by roars and thousands of camera phones held high for the first Bay Area appearance of his career Federer waved every which way held his racket in the air and beamed when introduced during warmups with the announcement at the soldout SAP Center that he had regained the No 1 world ranking For me to stand right here as world No 1 in San Jose is very very special for me Federer saidHe entertained from the start too praising Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates as a perfect partner He knows numbers very well He never makes mistakes on the scores Federer cracked Ill do the running and Bill does the thinking He joked to opponent Savannah Guthrie of NBCs TODAY show You have to start looking at the ball and stop looking at me Federer called off Gates with Thats mine thats mine too before Sock lobbed a winner over Gates that Federer couldnt chase downFederers The Match for Africa exhibition sold more than 15000 tickets to benefit his foundation that supports education for children in Africa At the end of the night the foundation had raised another USD 25 million The Swiss star who at 36 is the oldest mens player to be No 1 won the Australian Open in January for his 20th Grand Slam title Federer and Gates also teamed up last year in SeattleAfter the doubles the 25yearold Sock ranked 10th in the world pushed Federer to an 119 tiebreaker in the first set before dropping the second set 64 At one point in the opening set Sock showed his respect by overturning a fault call He walked toward the service line pointed that it was an ace and went to the changeover Sock joked beforehand Dont hit it to Roger Im winless against him for my career This match for Africa is something extraordinary Sock saidA video promoting the match featured Federer training Gates from weightlifting lunges with a heavy bar over his shoulders to studying a tennis book and both pingpong and tennis practice to work on his reflexes and skills Youll train like I do Federer said You are ready And Gates dressed in a bright pink polo drew oohs and aahs as he impressed with his shotmaking and hustle to keep points alive I think Im good at picking partners Gates said after he and Federer won 63Catch up on all the latest sports news and updates hereDownload the new midday Android and iOS apps to get updates on all the latest and trending stories on the goThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever