By Aaron Morris,Kieran Horn

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Roger Federer’s agent Tony Godsick has explained what propelled the Swiss maestro to the zenith of tennis . Federer , who hung up his racket in 2022 , is hailed as one of the all-time greats of the sport, boasting a staggering 20 Grand Slam titles. The 44-year-old’s retirement paved the way for rising stars Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner to take centre stage, although Federer’s long-standing rival Novak Djokovic remains a formidable force, eyeing an astonishing 25th major of his own. But it wasn’t just Federer’s athletic prowess that contributed to his success. According to Godsick, Federer’s personality played a significant role too, reports the Express . He explained on Andy Roddick’s Served Media YouTube channel : “He communicated so much. I could get him on the phone all the time, when I went out on the road with him we’d have dinner every night. “He wanted to participate in his business. I tell you, the secret to his success and our partnership has been the ability to always get him on the phone and always communicate. “He has strong opinions. I have strong opinions. We’ve got a lot of people around us. I had a great team around me and have a great team around me now. “Roger did as well. It all kind of worked. He did winning. We had a lot of fun doing it. He wanted to make sure and it’s one of the reasons he stayed out on tour as long as he did, he wanted to make sure he had a great time out around the world . “He stayed at nice hotels. We went to nice restaurants. We did cool things outside of tennis and he’d always include me. We got to know each other. “There have been people who think it’s wonderful, but we do this [clash]. We’ve had three mega-fights. He’s very strong-willed, he’s got a strong opinion, as do I. He raises his voice. He actually doesn’t yell, he holds it inside he’s very pragmatic. “He’s a great communicator and we speak things out. Most of them are over stupid things, most of them are not over business. Probably over scheduling or not getting an answer or him making me wait for a very long time on something that was easy to answer. “He’s been a dream to work with and he shows up too. If I say to him, ‘I’m trying to make a deal with these people, could you not just join me for dinner or whatever?’ For all the contracts that we’ve done, we never look at the agreement like how many appearances. “‘You guys need another appearance? Great.’ If Roger needed something for his foundation or event, we’d ask something and they’d say great. It was really easy, he was always on time. Super loyal so it made my job fun and easy.” It comes as Federer was announced as a billionaire earlier this year by Forbes . The publication estimates that the star has a net worth of around (£823million) $1.1billion thanks to his minority ownership stake in Swiss shoe and apparel brand, On. Elsewhere, he stands as one of just seven athletes who have hit the $1BN in career pre-tax earnings during his active years in the sport, alongside LeBron James , Tiger Woods , Phil Mickelson , Cristiano Ronaldo , Lionel Messi and Floyd Mayweather Jr .