Marco Falbo: Roger Federer, you are ending
2013 ranked No. 6, after starting it ranked No. 2. How do you assess
your season that has just ended?
Was 2013 a lost year?
No year is lost. In the circumstances, it was actually
an interesting season. It's no joke being injured, of course. But I had
to get through it, I had to question everything. Along with the back
problems, I had other setbacks of a kind I had seldom had in the
previous ten years. But nonetheless it was an interesting experience –
to see how different people reacted, and how I dealt with this situation
myself. Sometimes, I could hardly move properly, and yet was sharply
criticized by some people.
After always reaching at least the quarter-finals at 36 Grand Slam tournaments in a row, you lost in the
second round at Wimbledon to Sergiy Stakhovsky. Was that the low point
of your year?
Of course, that defeat was one of the biggest
disappointments of my season. I went to Wimbledon convinced that I could
win the tournament for the eighth time. But it wasn't a complete
surprise for me. Because I hadn't played really well in Paris. Then
Wimbledon was the start of the bigger problems.
Haven't these unaccustomed defeats against low-ranked players taken away your enjoyment of tennis?
Defeats are part of tennis. What matters is how you
react. What is also important for me is that I am honest with myself. I
am the sort of person who often questions everything; I did the same
when things were going really well for me. That's why I am not affected
much by the criticism, which I don't think is justified.
Where do you see yourself in terms of
your performance? Have you come up against certain limitations, or do
you think that you are still capable of top performances?
I can see no reason why I shouldn't play better again in
2014, and have some great wins. I have still got some major goals,
because I certainly haven't forgotten how to play tennis; after all, I
was still number one in the fall of 2012, and at the end of the season,
once my back was better, my results also improved. I reached the final
in Basel and the semi-finals at Paris-Bercy and the World Tour Finals,
and beat top-ten players without playing my best tennis. If my serve or
my forehand had been a bit more solid, the results could have been much
better.
You achieved some of your best wins at
the indoor tournaments. You contested 13 matches in three weeks, and
beat top players such as Juan Martin Del Potro twice, Richard Gasquet,
and Grigor Dimitrov. Were you surprised?
The end result is good, even though I would have liked
to win a tournament. But that would perhaps have been asking too much,
after such a year. After all, I was able to concentrate again fully on
my tennis and on tactics for three weeks, and my body didn't give me any
problems. In the preceding months, that had been different. That is a
big step, and makes me want more. My self-confidence has also returned.
By the end, everyone around me was talking positively again, the mood
was much better than in the summer. That boosts my morale for the coming
year, and it's a big relief. The fun has definitely returned.
What are your specific goals for 2014?
I would like to win about five tournaments again and
play in great finals, that's where I have most fun. My ranking is less
important to me, unless it's about being number one. But it would be
good to be in the top four or top eight, to get good seedings.
Are there any changes in your planning in 2014?
Yes, they're already being prepared. I'm concentrating
fully on my training; for once I won't be participating in any show
tournaments, in contrast with 2012 when I went to South America. What is
important is that I can train hard in Dubai in December without any
setbacks. I think that it will take until April for me to catch up
completely with my training. For once, I'll be opening the new season at
the ATP tournament in Brisbane, after which it's the Australian Open.
Will you be testing rackets with bigger heads, as you did in the summer when you even contested two tournaments with one?
I will, for sure. Because this summer's tests don't tell
us much because I wasn't able to play properly in Hamburg and Gstaad
because of my back problems.
Stanislas Wawrinka has become a top ten
player. Might that mean that you would be more willing to appear in the
Davis Cup again? In particular, will you be there against Serbia in the
first round in February 2014?
The situation is the same as two years ago. I've long
known that Wawrinka could beat the best players, he hasn't had to prove
anything to me for a long time. In the next few weeks I will make a
decision about the Davis Cup. But at the moment I have no idea what it
will be. But I am happy for Stan that things are going so well for him.
It was a fantastic end of season, with two Swiss players in the
semi-finals of the World Tour Finals. And neither of us knew right up to
the final tournament at Paris-Bercy whether we would even qualify.
Novak Djokovic said in London that you
were still very strong but that you had become a bit slower and didn't
move as well as in the past. What's your response to that?
What he says is true. But it would also be strange if I
could move wonderfully and at my best after a year when I couldn't train
enough and in between times lost quite a bit of my self-confidence. I
don't feel that I am as fast as in my best years, either. But despite
that I can still compete with the best. That makes me feel positive. For
months, I played while being afraid of back pains and got into bad
habits in the process. On court, I was orientating myself to the back
rather than to the front, I lost my usual aggressiveness. And somehow I
became a different player. Now I need time to get all of that out of my
system again.
Why did you split from your American coach Paul Annacone after more than three years? And what do you expect from a new coach?
It was a mutual split. We talked to each other in Dubai
before the tournament in Shanghai and both of us had the feeling that it
was the right moment. The split went as well as it possibly could. Paul
will remain a good friend and we're still in close contact with each
other. In Severin Lüthi, I still have a coach who has been extremely
helpful for me for a long time. But I don't know if he can or wants to
be on the road with me for 40 weeks next year. At the moment, I don't
know if I am going to appoint a new coach at all. I'm very happy with my
team.
How do you assess the situation at the top, with Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic as numbers one and two?
The two players' achievements this year have been
massive, and they are clearly better than the others. I think Nadal is
the right number one, because he won two Grand Slam titles. I'm looking
forward to seeing how the two of them start next season, they are quite
clearly the ones to beat.
Date: 4th December 2013, Source: Credit Suisse
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