Federer back on track with win over Krajinovic, comments on NextGen dynamic
Roger Federer may have been a bit rusty in his first match at the Miami Open—being pushed to three sets against Radu Albot—but it was all business as usual with Serbian Filip Krajinovic, 7-5, 6-3.
The first set was tight, but the 37-year-old legend found his groove after clocking in the first set win, seizing the momentum to grab a 4-1 early lead in the second set.
Roger Federer served at a high margin, clocking in 86% of his first serves, with the Swiss winning 74% of his first serve points.
“I thought I served very well, because Filip can return very well, especially on second serve. I know I could feel the pressure maybe, to some extent, if I don't make the first serves. But I still kept going after them, and I was able to hit my spots and keep the pressure on and shorten points as the match went on.
“I thought, you know, it was a high, intense match in the first sort of, you know, ten games. Then I was able to pull away. I had a good 20-minute stretch where I was really able to stretch the lead, and that was key today.”
Federer faces Daniil Medvedev, one of a crop of talented NextGen players who are knocking at the door of the Top 10—like Stefan Tsitsipas and Karen Khachanov—and the 20-time slam champ talked about how much the young generation reminded him of his own peers when he was first starting out.
“You know, it reminds me very much of the campaign I was part of when I was growing up, the ‘New Balls Please’ campaign. There we had some older guys -- I mean, older, it was Guga [Kuerten] and [Nicolas] Kiefer and Tommy [Haas] and guys that were actually a few years older. So they mixed it a little bit more. It was just not the generation, I guess, of Agassi and Sampras.”
For a refresher of the “New Balls, Please” campaign, check this out:
Stumbled upon ATP's old ad campaign called New Balls Please... Ha ha...these were today's Dimitrovs and Raonics lol pic.twitter.com/gvtGWkxdec
— Optimist☀️ (@VolleyMePlease) July 21, 2014
Of the players featured (Haas, Andy Roddick, Lleyton Hewitt, Marat Safin, Sebastian Grosjean, Juan Carlos Ferraro, and Guga), only Fed is still active on tour, and still in the Top 5. The man is truly a marvel.
“I thought that was nice to sort of tie us young guys together,” Federer continued, reminiscing about the campaign. “It's not the young against the old, but it maybe feels a little bit like that for the young guys that they look towards one another to be the best of that group, and then naturally, if you're the best of that group or top three, you can then also become the best of the next group, which is the main group.
“When you come on the big tour, all of a sudden, you're trying to compare yourself to World No. 1, which seems like such a mountain to climb. So it's maybe better to have it done in the way like what the ATP did with first becoming the best NextGen guy. I think for that reason, I think it's worked very well.”
Medvedev is known for having an all-around varied game. Federer, however, doesn’t seem worried about his chances, having beaten the world No. 15 twice last year, both times on hard courts (Basel, and Shanghai Masters).
“At the end of the day, just playing with feel is not enough, will not be enough. But if you combine it with the right sort of amount of power and being able to absorb pace, as well, redirect, you know, I think it's absolutely possible.
“I'm not quite sure how much Medvedev falls in that category… He plays from far back and can play in, as well, so there is some variety there, but other than that, he plays very flat, you know, for me.
“Thankfully I played him last year twice in Basel and Shanghai. I'm looking forward to the game. But I'm very impressed about his progress… I must say the last year has been unbelievable for him… Yeah, variety definitely has a place in our game and will always have.”
It seems like Roger Federer has been the face of men’s tennis forever. The legendary player was asked if he regretted any sacrifices he made along the way to dominating the sport.
“I mean, I guess school, to some extent. I stopped at 16. I would have continued, I guess, if I wasn't a tennis player. I mean, I guess friendships, you know, the ones you make from 16 to 20 in that time.
“But the sacrifices were worth it, and I would do it maybe not exactly all over again, but I was happy I chose the road I chose.”
Federer also talked about the difference between maintaining his form in a Masters event and a grand slam.
“I think it's about maintaining maybe also a certain level, because things happen very quickly. This is not best-of-five-set tennis. It's best-of-three. You can have a bad few minutes at the beginning of the game, like I had against Albot, or you can have it, I don't know, maybe for Krajinovic today, bad end of the set, bad start to the next set, and that is it.
“So I think it's more of a mental thing, you know, where you have maybe a point is more important than every single point at a slam.”
With a second match win under his belt at this year’s Miami Open, the world No. 5 has already improved his disappointing performance from last year, when he went out in his first match. With his Indian Wells finalist, Dominic Thiem, ousted already, Federer is likely to switch ranking spots with him, to become the world No. 4 again.
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2YqUM3J
No comments