The legendary laughter of Roger Federer and Pedro Pinto

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November 24, 2009: Roger Federer was actually supposed to be sitting quietly being interviewed by Pedro Pinto, but the reporter completely got on his nerves. The Spanish question seemed to push Federer's fun muscles to their limits.

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Who doesn’t know: the feeling when all you really have to do is sit there quietly and listen. But for some reason you find it all very funny and suddenly you have to laugh. The more you have to stop laughing, the worse it gets. That's exactly how Roger Federer feels on this day.

CNN was granted an interview with Roger Federer as part of a sponsored appointment. At first, the conversation went well. Although the atmosphere was extremely relaxed and reporter Pedro Pinto was delivering the first words, Roger Federer was able to concentrate and provide information in English with his usual eloquence.

But then Pedro Pinto made a request that totally upset Roger Federer: “You don't have to do anything. “I'm just going to read out some questions in Spanish,” the CNN guy said. So Federer just had to listen. And pretending to understand something. For a guy who can even keep his cool in a Grand Slam final tiebreaker, it's not really a problem.

When Pinto said the first word in Spanish, the calm Federer burst into laughter. The tennis master's laughter was so contagious that even the interviewers and directors present laughed. Pinto had now smelled the trigger and was enjoying the whole situation, a sentiment he capitalized on cleverly: “Because this interview is about Latin America, I can open one more shirt button,” he joked.

From that moment on, this is what happened to Roger Federer: Even though Pinto said nothing more, Federer smiled. Concentration is at its lowest level, and the Swiss recommend taking breaks. But this disruption had little effect, and now Pinto continues to lose control.

When the first scene was finally completed, the sky on the horizon had darkened significantly. Much to my delight, “only” three of them need to be turned. Federer fears he will have to endure five Spanish problems. Somehow they managed to put the following two scenes together and end the interview.

Federer and the Spaniard: An explosive mixture

Pedro Pinto draws exciting conclusions from meeting Federer: “With a little humor and a little Spanish you can beat Roger Federer, who is otherwise so composed and cool.” It's possible. It is also the secret of success for Del Potro and Nadal against the Swiss.

In fact: Pedro Pinto's analysis seemed to be exactly on target: a year later, Federer met Nadal for a commercial shoot, which again ended in a veritable laugh-out-loud orgy. Especially when Nadal said “Switzerland” and took out “Spain S”, Federer could hardly sit still. This would clear up not only the question of Nadal's secret recipe, but also Federer's favorite song: “That's Spanish!”