“Maybe my rhythm was missing,” said Federer, after his loss to Andreas Seppi. “I was aware that this could be a tough match, so I wasn't mistaken this time around.
“I guess it was just an overall feeling I had today out on the court that I couldn't really get the whole game flowing. Was it backhand? Was it forehand? Was it serve? It was a bit of everything.”
But the four-time champion was full of praise for Seppi, who broke a 23-match losing streak against players in the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings with the third-round victory.
“We’ve played some good matches in the past,” said World No. 2 Federer. “He hits a good ball, forehand and backhand, so I knew that on a quicker court where he gets more help on the serve it was potentially going to be tricky. And I felt, for some reason, yesterday and this morning it was not going to be very simple today.”
Federer lost 6-4, 7-6(5), 4-6, 7-6(5), committing 55 unforced errors and hitting nine double faults.
“I wish I could have won the first set; then things would have been different. But I definitely wanted to go into the match, play aggressive, play the right way, play on my terms, but it was just hard to do. For some reason I struggled. It had things to do with Andreas' game and with my game as well. You put those things together, then all of a sudden you're playing a match you don't want to play.
“But it just broke me to lose that second set. And actually the fourth, I should have won it, too. It was just a brutal couple of sets to lose there.”
Federer will next play at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, where he is a six-time champion.
Date: 23rd January 2015, Source: ATP
hard luck fed... still legend... all times
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