Federer was born on 8 August 1981 in Basel, Switzerland.A member of the Federer family, his Swiss-German father, Robert Federer, is from Berneck in the canton of St. Gallen and his Afrikaner mother, Lynette Federer (née Durand), is from Kempton Park, Gauteng, in South Africa. He has one sibling, his older sister, Diana, the mother of twins. Since Federer’s mother is South African, he holds both Swiss and South African citizenship. He grew up in nearby Birsfelden, Riehen, and then Münchenstein, close to the French and German borders, and speaks Swiss German, Standard German, English, and French fluently as well as functional Italian and a few phrases of Swedish. Swiss German is his native language. He was a ball boy at his hometown Basel event, the Swiss Indoors in 1992 and 1993.
Like all male Swiss citizens, Federer was subject to compulsory military service in the Swiss Armed Forces. However, in 2003, he was ruled “unsuitable” and was subsequently not required to fulfill his military obligation. Instead, he served in the civil protection force and was required to pay 3% of his taxable income as an alternative. Later, he revealed that he was discharged due to a chronic back problem.