Roger Federer fell in a championship match at the Western and Southern Open for the first time on Sunday, losing 4-6, 4-6 to former World No. 1 Novak Djokovic.
But instead of looking at his own performance after the match, he was
full of praise for Djokovic, who completed the Career Golden Masters.
Federer was full of praise for Djokovic after the final: “Congratulations Novak on writing history today. It's an amazing effort
not just today but your whole career to get to this point. It's an
amazing achievement. You should be very proud. Well done.”
Federer knows just how difficult it is to win at this level, claiming 27
ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles in his career. World No. 1 Rafael Nadal
(33), Djokovic (31) and Federer (27) are the only players to capture
more than 20 since the series was created in 1990. Djokovic is the first
player to triumph at all nine Masters 1000 events.
“He's a great champion and this is what this should be about, this press
conference, not about me missing second-serve returns. It's about him
making history,” Federer said. “We can go into whatever points you want,
but I think that's what the headline should be about. This is an
amazing accomplishment, and I hope he's extremely proud and extremely
happy about this moment.”
Every match at this level is tough. Case in point: all six of Djokovic’s
opponents this week were inside the Top 33 of the ATP Rankings. Four of
the five - Grigor Dimitrov, Milos Raonic, Marin Cilic and Federer - have cracked the Top 3 in their career.
“I think it's extremely difficult to win a Masters 1000. These
tournaments don't come easy. You saw my performance today. It's just a
long week. It's tough, grueling. The best players are playing. You play
against tough guys early on in the draw, so you don't have much time to
find your rhythm and actually almost work on your game throughout the
week,” Federer said. “He's done that maybe better than anybody. So it's a
great credit to him. I think it's an amazing accomplishment.”
It wasn't a bad week for Federer, either. He fell short on Sunday,
but it was the World No. 2’s sixth final from eight tour-level events in
2018. The Swiss is now 33-5 on the season, and will set his sights on
the US Open, which he has won five times.
“I’ve just got to come up with a lot of energy, and then hopefully I
also have a chance after 10 years to do something special again at the
Open,” Federer said. “I still think this US Open draw, as well, is going to be quite entertaining, and I can't wait for the US Open to come around.”
But for now, it’s Djokovic’s moment. Federer could sit and nitpick why
he was only able to win 47 per cent of second-serve points, why he was
broken three times after putting together a streak of 100 consecutive
holds in Cincinnati, or why the Serbian was able to win 78 per cent of
second-serve points. But he won’t.
“It was definitely not my best day on the return”, Federer, who won
just four of 18 second-serve return points, added. “That's it. It was
just awful. But it's okay. He served well. But missing every second
serve on the forehand side, I don't know what that was about. I don't
even want to look for reasons why it happened. I just think it did.
Novak totally deserved to win today. This was not good enough. It's
okay. Good week, but I'm happy it's over and I need to rest. So it's all
good.”
“Roger wasn't obviously at his best. He missed a lot of returns. He
had a difficult time moving. He was not really playing as well as he did
in previous matches this week, but at the same time, I thought I was
solid. I didn't allow him to come to the net and be aggressive too much
and I tried to kind of hold ground and protect the line”, Djokovic said.
“It's much easier said than done when you're playing Roger,
especially in these conditions where he loves playing here. Everything
happens really, really fast and there is not much time to think or to
construct the points, so you really need to be alert all the time,
especially against him.”
Federer suffered his first defeat in a Cincinnati final,
falling to 7-1. He had defeated Djokovic in three previous
championships, in 2009, 2012 and 2015. Moreover, the Swiss was denied
his 99th tour-level crown, which he will now look to seize at the US Open.
Date: 20 August 2018, Source: ATP