TENNIS in DEPTH.

Four months on from his Wimbledon victory, Federer returns to London for the end-of-season ATP World Tour Finals that starts at the O² Arena on Sunday, and there is a new skill to admire: snoozing.

Over the coming days, weeks and months, Federer’s most important natural talent may not be his ability to hit a forehand drive or to punch a backhand volley, but the fact that he sleeps through the cries of his young twins, Myla Rose and Charlene Riva. Federer can carry on snoozing as his wife, Mirka, tends to the babies.

“Mirka does more. Mirka is very quick on her feet. I sleep very deeply, which helped me to sleep through some screaming,” Federer said. “Mirka is great. There were times, especially at the beginning, when I woke up and helped as well. Now I think we’ve got into the right habits.”

With Federer trying to combine the roles of young father and world No 1, he is going to have to sleep his way to success. The twins, who were born in late July, rarely sleep in tandem, so it is just as well that Federer is a deep sleeper.

“If one is asleep, the other one is awake. It would be too nice of them to be asleep at the same time. During the day I try to help as much as I can,” said Federer. “For Mirka the most important thing is just that I’m there. She doesn’t care too much if I change nappies or feed them. She just wants me to hold them as much as possible because we both believe it’s very important that mum and dad are both there.”

Since his daughters were born, Federer has not had a day apart from them, and the plan is for Mirka and the twins to accompany him to London for the ATP World Tour Finals. Andy Murray has coaches and fitness trainers in his entourage; Federer has a couple of babies.

Myla and Charlene even went with him to North America over the summer for tournaments in Montreal, Cincinnati and the US Open in New York, but that trip was made easier with the help of a nanny and a private jet.

“What I have realised is that travelling with babies isn’t the most difficult thing in the world,” he said. “They’re very good travellers. Of course we’d never put their health at risk for anything because that’s what’s most important, but it’s been fun, travelling in a big group, as a family. I expected some more screaming along the way in planes, but it’s been easy.”

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