What if he's just mastered the art of controlling how much importance and emphasis his places on particular feelings and emotions? (something we've discussed in the past, no doubt you remember). Does this mean that he is repressing, or choosing to be a certain type of person? Perhaps he knows he needs to control his emotions in order to be the player that wins Grand Slam titles? You can’t knock him for that surely?

No doubt there are times when he gets angry and looses his temper. That is inevitable with every human being. Everyone knows that. I haven't heard him come out and say "I am calm and collected and humble all the time. Every day, hour, minute and second." It’s not an act. He is Roger Federer. We are defined by our actions.

I think you are being incredibly harsh on him K. I even think you are being a bit illogical. It’s the first time I’ve thought that of you.

I think this is getting waaay out there now. Nobody is suggesting Doctor Who like Cybermen and nobody is acting like one.

Just because a person is humble in the face of something that would generally upset many does not mean he is unemotional. You want emotional motivation behind being that way? How about pride versus shame? I want to be the best I can possibly be, I understand that various things that would allow me to achieve that contradict each other, such as destroying the ego under the pretences of being better. I however recognise that there is a healthy balance, healthy narcissism versus the unhealthy.

Just because a man isn't raging or seeming upset at a loss does not mean he is repressing things. Instead of raging at a loss he could simply love the quality of such a challenging game. He might simply love competition, I know I do and I know I'll say "fair play" and not act like a baby upon losing something. Nobody is suggesting a person should become unemotional, merely that they should learn to control and understand their emotions so that they might become a better person out of that control. You would not suggest that a person with anger management issues stay the way he is, you would suggest he learn to control and become indifferent to the silly things that bother him. Same principle, higher level.

Don't become unemotional, merely lose the emotion for the things that don't matter and focus on the things that do.

"it makes my skin crawl" really seemed like a knock on him, you may have meant the behaviour but that's not how it reads.

I accept it K but what I'm trying to make you realise is that at work behaviour CAN be a person's normal behaviour. Just because someone displays the perfect behaviour for their role doesn't make them a fake or assuming that role. I in fact think that a person who achieves being the best in the world at something is far more likely to be displaying their natural behaviour than displaying fake behaviour. Acting would merely add another mental stress to the equation that competitive sportsmen just don't need when they're at that level.

Take Nadal as an example here, watch any of his interviews. He displays the same nicety and perfect behaviour in interview but when he's on court all of that fades away and you can quite clearly see he's a different person, keeping up that front isn't possible at the same time as playing at the absolute fringe. While Federer will look frustrated with himself at times he never shows a break down in his personality.

We can disagree on this. It doesn't really matter anyway.