Roger Federer reveals what motivates him to keep performing 'beyond 30'

Roger Federer has revealed that his passion to keep playing tennis and perform at the highest level comes from the game itself. The Swiss ace is breaking barriers and scaling new heights at 36, something which has never been done before.

The legendary Swiss recently reclaimed the world No.1 ranking for the first time in almost five-and-a-half years and is arguably playing some of the best tennis of his career as he approaches his 37th birthday. Federer has also won his 20th Grand Slam at Melbourne last month, winning the Australian Open for the sixth time in his career.

Federer's latest foray into the top of the ATP charts is likely to see him extend his record of 302 weeks at the top, followed by the likes of Pete Sampras with 286 weeks, Ivan Lendl with 270, Jimmy Connors with 268, Novak Djokovic with 223, John McEnroe with 170 and Rafael Nadal with 167.​ ​

The Swiss maestro was also quick to extend his thanks to his fans and family, who were with him throughout his career. Federer suffered a major knee injury in 2016, the first time in his career, which kept him out for the better part of 2016. However, he managed to soldier on and since his return in 2017, has won three of the five Grand Slams thus far.

"My motivation comes from my passion for the game itself. I still like to train and work to innovate my game. I have had the great opportunity to play in so many different places and in the most important sporting arenas: it's a feeling that I love and that I hope to be able to try for a long time, still," Federer said, as quoted by Tennis World USA.

"And then there is my team, my family and fans. Their support is incredible and it definitely pushed me to keep going, beyond the age of 30.

"You have to look beyond losses. A tennis player has to face a lot of them through his career, so you learn to build something around it, [by] taking motivation from it to improve. Our sport offers us a lot of chances to try again. It makes no sense to get down too much for a loss, in life, there is always an opportunity to do better."