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
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