“If he wins and becomes No. 1, it's going to be well deserved,” Djokovic said. “He's played fantastic this year. He's been so consistent. If he wins, he wins. There's nothing I can do about it. The best player will win this tournament. I'm out.”
The Serb believes Federer has been knocking on the doorstep of winning his 17th Grand Slam title the past two seasons.
“The last couple years, he didn't win a major, but he was in a couple of finals and was always in the semi-finals. He's always playing close matches,” said Djokovic. “This is tennis. He was so dominant, and then you had Nadal who made a great rivalry with him. Then myself, Murray, a couple other players who were young and who started believing they can win against him. That's what I think makes this era right now in men's tennis very interesting.”
Roger Federer will attempt to regain the World No. 1 ranking by clinching a record-equalling seventh title at The Championships on Sunday when he faces Andy Murray who ended Britain's 74-year wait for a male Wimbledon finalist.
Should the Swiss superstar go onto lift his 17th Grand Slam championship trophy – in his 24th major final – he will regain No. 1 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings on Monday.
“I've got a tough task ahead of me,” third seed Federer told BBC Television on Friday. “There's a lot on the line for me, all-time Grand Slam record, World No. 1.”
Federer, who is already guaranteed to replace Rafael Nadal as the World No. 2, has been World No. 1 for 285 weeks, one week shy of all-time record-holder Pete Sampras on 286 weeks.
“Everybody knows what a hero Sampras is to me and how much I admire what he's been able to achieve in tennis,” said Federer in his post-match press conference. “I don't think he ever lost a Grand Slam final here at Wimbledon. He won seven out of seven, which is just incredible, particularly in the times he played against all these big servers. So I'm very proud to have a shot of equalling Pete, but right now the focus is obviously resting and preparing for the next match.”
''I've had experience playing Roger in the finals of slams before,'' Murray said. ''I'm going to use that to my advantage and learn from my mistakes and also the things he did well.''
Date: 06.07.2012, Source: ATP
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