Roger Federer is auctioning t-shirts, racquets, and shoes from his trophy-laden tennis career after delving into the vast memorabilia archive stored up for years by his wife and family. The sports legend is hoping to raise 1 million pounds (USD 1.4 million, 1.15 million euros) for the Roger Federer Foundation, which supports educational projects in southern Africa and his native Switzerland. "The Roger Federer collection is the most important single-owner collection of sporting memorabilia that has ever come to the market," said Bertold Mueller, the continental Europe managing director of the British auction house Christie`s. The items cover 21 years of Federer`s career, Mueller told AFP at a pre-sale exhibition of the auction lots in Zurich. The collection is on show in Hong Kong until Tuesday.

The 39-year-old has won 20 Grand Slam titles, a record shared with Spanish rival Rafael Nadal. Federer has recently returned to the courts following more than a year out recovering from two knee operations. The injury lay-off gave him time to go through his memorabilia treasure trove. "Roger Federer started collecting these items as early as 2000 with the help and support of his parents, of his wife, and they have collected these items for more than 20 years now, keeping them safe, labelling them, cataloguing them," said Mueller. "They always had in mind that at some point they would want to turn it into something good and now... Federer has decided that the moment has come to put this all up for auction."