Matthew Ebden: 'I secretly wanted to have a crack at Roger Federer'
Matthew Ebden had to work hard for every point once his professional career started, making steady progress through the rankings and entering the top-100 in 2011 just before turning 24. After a few solid seasons, Durban native lost the ground a little bit in 2014, 2015 and 2016, scoring six ATP wins overall and barely staying inside the top-700 in 2016, playing just 15 matches and struggling with a left knee injury that bothered him since the closing stages of the previous season. Determined to make a comeback, Matthew made great progress in 2017, claiming two Challenger titles and reaching his first ATP final on grass in Newport as a qualifier, ranked 249th.
After lifting a title at Canberra Challenger, Ebden cracked the top-100 for the first time since September 2014, wrapping up the year with another crown in Toyota and seeking even bigger results in 2018. They for sure came, with Matthew raising his level to complete a career-best season and finish inside the top-50 for the first time, beating the names like John Isner, Philipp Kohlschreiber, David Goffin and Dominic Thiem. In addition, the Perth resident played a great match against Roger Federer in Halle, losing 7-6, 7-5 after staying in touch with a great rival in both sets.
There were no breaks in the opening set and Roger won the tie break 7-2, with another close set coming in set number two where Ebden had a 2-1 and 4-3 lead with breaks, getting broken in game 10 while serving for the set. Carried by this momentum, Federer grabbed the last four games of the match to secure the triumph in straight sets and this was the toughest loss for Matthew in the entire season, saying he even cried after the match.
“2017 gave me a bit of confidence in my character to push through and pursue again,” Ebden said. “With my people, we just started putting things in place where I would maximize with consistency my weeks, my months, my whole year. I knew I could be a lot better than I was before and I wouldn’t be surprised if my best years and rankings are still ahead of me. We worked on becoming more stone-cold killerish. It started in practice where I was just letting rip and my coach just kept drumming it into me.
It’s something I might have been a little bit guilty of in my career ... I’ve always shown off the ground and with the movement I’m as good or better than nearly anyone in the world, but even from winning positions I didn’t quite finish them off. I secretly wanted to have a crack at Roger. I didn’t really mess up or do anything too wrong and I made him come up with the real goods, but it was frustrating to lose. I was shattered after the match and actually had some tears because it’s not every day you get the opportunity to beat the world No. 1 and greatest grass-courter in history and I was really close.”
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2GMhU8h
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