{"id":16517,"date":"2020-08-04T21:31:32","date_gmt":"2020-08-04T16:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/?p=28910"},"modified":"2020-08-04T21:31:32","modified_gmt":"2020-08-04T16:01:32","slug":"roger-federer-surprises-the-girls-who-went-viral-for-their-rooftop-tennis-during-coronavirus-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/tennis\/roger-federer-surprises-the-girls-who-went-viral-for-their-rooftop-tennis-during-coronavirus-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Roger Federer surprises the girls who went viral for their rooftop tennis during Coronavirus pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two Italian girls whose rooftop tennis video went viral have received a surprise visit from Roger Federer.<\/p>\n<p>The video of Vittoria Oliveri and Carola Pessina playing on the rooftops of neighbouring buildings in Finale Ligure during the COVID-19 lockdown garnered over 10 million views.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/sxJ4Z56mglM<\/p>\n<p>The girls thought they were preparing for another media interview when they were asked about their favourite players.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRoger Federer. If I were to meet him, I would jump on him, or I would be starstruck,\u201d Vittoria, 13, said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would like to have Federer\u2019s elegance while playing and (Rafa) Nadal\u2019s power,\u201d 11-year-old Carola added.<\/p>\n<p>The girls were then left wide-eyed and speechless when Federer came out from behind a curtain. The 20-times Grand Slam champion later played some rooftop tennis with the girls before inviting them for lunch.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-transform: initial\">\u201cI nearly fainted when he showed up,\u201d Vittoria was quoted as saying by The Times. \u201cHe figured out the distances pretty fast and started playing shots between his legs from one roof to another, which was amazing.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"left\" class=\"articleleft\">\n<div class=\"article-box\">\n<article id=\"count_12\" class=\"article-content-box first_big_character\">\u201cI didn\u2019t think he was real. I thought it was a mannequin.\u201dFederer also told the girls he had arranged for them to go to a summer camp at the Rafa Nadal Academy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPersonally, for me, that was a very special moment in my career as a tennis player to surprise a fan, or children, like I was able to with Carola and Vittoria today,\u201d Federer said.<\/p>\n<p>Partnering Barilla, not only did Federer play rooftop tennis with them, but also had a meal along with the two young tennis players. It is moments like these that reinforce the power and beauty of sport. Despite 2020 being a tough year, such moments are what bring out a silver lining.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-youtube-player\">\n<div class=\"article-videowrap\">\n<div class=\"video-container\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div id=\"outbrain_widget_0\" class=\"OUTBRAIN\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.news18.com\/news\/sports\/federer-pays-surprise-visit-to-rooftop-tennis-girls-2756079.html\" data-widget-id=\"AR_1\" data-ob-mark=\"true\" data-browser=\"chrome\" data-os=\"macintel\" data-dynload=\"\" data-idx=\"0\">\n<div class=\"ob-widget ob-grid-layout AR_1 ob-cmn-AR_1\" data-dynamic-truncate=\"true\">\n<div class=\"ob-widget-items-container\">\n<div class=\"ob-dynamic-rec-container ob-recIdx-7 ob-p\" data-pos=\"7\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"right\">\n<div class=\"vspacer20 news18-special vwall\">\n<figure>\n<div id=\"playerContainer\">\n<div id=\"vidPlayer\">\n<div id=\"myvideo\" class=\"video-js vjs-default-skin vjs-big-play-centered vjs-controls-enabled vjs-workinghover vjs-v7 vjs-live-streaming vjs-has-started myvideo-dimensions vjs-live vjs-paused vjs-user-inactive vjs-ad-content-resuming\" lang=\"en-us\" role=\"region\" data-setup=\"{\"techOrder\": [\"html5\", \"flash\"], \"hls\": { \"withCredentials\": true }}\" aria-label=\"Video Player\">\n<div class=\"vjs-menu vjs-setting-menu vjs-setting-menu-ready\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two Italian girls whose rooftop tennis video went viral have received a surprise visit from Roger Federer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":37377,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[331,202],"class_list":["post-16517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tennis","tag-roger-federer","tag-tennis"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}