I was very nervous for Roger Federer, says Mercedes Cup chief
The Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart seemed to be a taboo for Roger Federer. After losing to Dominic Thiem in the 2016 semifinals and to Tommy Haas in the 2017 opening round, the Swiss got closer to another surprising loss in 2018 when he had dropped the first set to a grass-court specialist like Mischa Zverev in the opening match. At that moment, the Tournament Director Edwin Weindorfer left the stadium as he could not cope with nerves. The event always spends a lot of money to bring Federer in and they clearly wanted him to go all the way, which actually happened as the Basel native went on to win his first title there. Recalling his feelings at the beginning of the week, in a chat to Tennis World USA Weindorfer said: 'I was very nervous, especially after 2017 when he lost to Tommy Haas in the first round which was tough.
But it eventually worked this time. It took three years to win this tournament, we are not the biggest tournament in the world but when you bring in a player who won Wimbledon so many times you expect him to win your tournament at least once. He feels very comfortable and he enjoys this tournament a lot because it's not a big tournament like Grand Slams.'
Federer started his 2019 season at the Hopman Cup in Perth winning all the four singles matches he played. After the Australian Open, Roger will play in Dubai, Indian Wells and Miami.
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from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2AHBkpl
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