Tennis Prose




Aug/19

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Federer Savors Positives From Djokovic Loss At Wimbledon

When you have two championship points to win Wimbledon and lose them both and ultimately the match, it could be a draining torture for any player, even one as accomplished as Roger Federer.

Federer had his 21st major title on his Wilson racquet but the amazing Serbian escaped, survived and eventually raised the title.

Pete Sampras said last year he could not sleep before his major finals – not because of the pressure but because he feared “feeling like shi* the next three months.” Federer’s July Wimbledon agony only lasted a few days.

“I struggled a little bit the first couple days,” Federer said today at the US Open. “At the same time, I was caravaning with my kids. I didn’t have that much time thinking about all the missed opportunities. I was setting up tables and organizing my life for my four children, driving around the beautiful countryside in Switzerland. Sometimes you have flashbacks, things like, ‘Oh, I could have done that, should have done that.’ The next day you’re having a glass of wine with your wife thinking, ‘The semis was pretty good, the final was pretty good.’ You go in phases. It took me maybe a couple of days just to sort of get those things out of the system, like it takes with everything. Then first couple days back playing tennis, as well, you have a few flashbacks.”

Once the sense of devastation relieved, Federer says he began to see the silver lining in the clouds.


“If I look back, I’m very happy I was part of such an entertaining match as well,” the 38-year-old stated. “We are in entertainment, as well. The crowd paid big money to be part of this match. I was part of the main show with Novak. We put up a great fight. Somebody had to win. Novak was the better man on the day.”

Looking ahead, Federer is now setting his attention and energies on the task of the conquest for his sixth US Open. “I’m not putting extra pressure on myself,” Federer said. “I know it’s going to be tough. I’m not coming in as the overwhelming favorite like maybe I did back in 2006 or 2007. I’m very much aware of how I need to approach this tournament mentally.”

“I’ve been playing well. Playing well in Slams recently, which has been great. I think also the win over Rafa in the semis was big for me. Also the finals, the way I played that in Wimbledon, is going to give me some extra confidence. It’s going to be a tough tournament to win, no doubt about it. I feel like I’m part of that group who can do it.”

Federer, Nadal and Djokovic are the three main favorites to win the title in two weeks time but several threats are looming, particularly Daniil Medvedev, Karen Khachanov, Dominic Thiem, Felix Auger Aliassime, Stefanos Tsitsipas and David Goffin.

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7 comments

  • Andrew Miller · August 24, 2019 at 12:20 pm

    Interesting as Djokovic said he’s learned a lot from his losses…which doesn’t bode well for the field because Djokovic isn’t his post Wimbledon 2016 self, he’s his post Wimby 2019 playing for keeps self.

  • Hartt · August 24, 2019 at 2:11 pm

    Federer is a glass half full type of person, but I wonder if he was more gutted by that Wimby loss than he is saying. Wimbledon is especially important to him, and to let that title slip away had to be devastating. He may never have another opportunity to win Wimbledon.

  • Andrew Miller · August 24, 2019 at 2:40 pm

    Hartt – not shedding a tear for Federer. Agassi said same kinds of things after winning a slam! That it all fades pretty quickly. If Federer doesn’t win another Wimbledon…gosh, 20 slams is a lot. It’s so much that it’s the most in history. Even if or when Nadal and Djokovic pass him, it will still be an extraordinary amount, especially because the guy’s behind them won’t be strong enough to come close to matching them. I’m willing to say “never” on this too – I don’t see a game out there as of now that lends itself to mowing over opponents for the better part of sixteen years.

  • Andrew Miller · August 24, 2019 at 2:43 pm

    Besides, champs always say this. They’ll always have a bad taste when losing and wish they had done x, y, z. But Djokovic has a good deal here, basically if he didn’t have a loss he wouldn’t fix anything, he’d get sloppy…and for Djokovic this makes sense right now, he’s dead set on racking up more slam titles to pass Nadal and Federer and he’s not shy about this.

  • Andrew Miller · August 24, 2019 at 3:03 pm

    Nadal will be happy post retirement. All of them I think should be ok. They know they’ve had historic careers, and that they’re in the final innings, with Federer in his final inning of his career given he’s 38. I watched a Nike segment on Nadal and his academy and the guy really loves Mallorca and Manacor where he’s from. It’s just isolated enough for him to be away from all the pressures from big media centers, and he thinks he has something to offer players. He’s seen the success of the Mouratoglou academy in France and other tennis centers in Spain founded by people like JC Ferrero and the Sanchez Vicario families, so he knows he can apply what he’s learned in tennis to develop a worthwhile academy.

    And be somewhere he loves for the rest of his life.

    We’ve been fortunate to have these guys in the sport.

    Still as competitors I hope their opponents learn that it’s one thing to admire them and another thing to make history themselves. Don’t admire too much.

  • Scoop Malinowski · August 24, 2019 at 7:08 pm

    Hartt, we know Federer is a super sensitive guy, we saw him cry so many times after wins and losses and the loss to Djokovic in July was the most excruciating of all but he would never give Djokovic the satisfaction of crying in his presence. He bottled it up and concealed it and surely vented it all out later and the following days IMO. He has to play it off as no big deal so Djokovic doesn’t not gain any more mental power over him.

  • jackson · August 25, 2019 at 12:20 am

    Here’s a link to the Nike video that Andrew was talking about. It’s excellent. (Turn on the English subtitles so you can understand what they’re saying.) https://youtu.be/Ll7gf9j7cS4

    You’re right Andrew that Rafa is going to be happy post-retirement. He’s a happy, laid-back guy by nature but as he says in the video, Mallorca is his home and he can’t imagine living anywhere else. Did you know the Nadal family has been traced back to the 14th century in Mallorca?

    The Academy is successful beyond their dreams – it’s increased tourism in Manacor substantially and they’ve opened up two satellite locations in Mexico and Greece already. Now he’s about to get married and start a family. Life seems pretty ideal for Rafa. I don’t expect to see him on tour much longer regardless of how close he might be to 20 slams. It hasn’t ever been about the records for him like it is for Djokovic. As Rafa says, he never dreamed he’d accomplish what he already has.

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