Roger Federer: 'Legends watching me at Wimbledon make me nervous'
In an interview to Al Jazeera Balkans, Roger Federer recalled when he broke Pete Sampras's 14 Grand Slam titles record defeating Andy Roddick 16-14 in a five-set Wimbledon epic final back in 2009. Sampras himself, Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg were on the Centre Court Royal Box that day. Federer said:"It was very special to see all the legends sitting there expecting history to be broken maybe. They all came to see me. What makes me most nervous is when fellow tennis players and legends of the game come and watch me play for me that makes me nervous. It was a beautiful moment plus I had an epic match against Andy Roddick who was a great friend of mine and who I admire so much. You also have to imagine that the year before I lost in this brutal match to Nadal 9-7 in the fifth and the year before I also had five sets with Nadal which I won. So I had five sets, five sets and then five sets against Roddick to break the record. My wife was pregnant, I just won the French Open a month earlier. It was like the perfect summer and everybody was there, the record was broken and it was one of the best moments in my life."
Federer was asked which coach had the biggest impact on his game and career: "It's really difficult to tell but all the coaches I have had for me, seemed to be at the right time. My junior coaches taught me the technique, Peter Carter was very influential in my behaviour, in who I am today as a father figure and also technique-wise. So I am very thankful to him. Then I had a lot of coaches that made me work extremely hard like Tony Roche, Severin Luthi, my coach today, he has been with me for so long that he has been a great friend but mostly a great coach who taught me about tactics and everyday work ethic. And then, of course, Ivan has been great. He is a good friend of mine, he is the first coach I have had who played in my generation. Before they did not all play like Jose Higueras, Stefan Edberg, Paul Annacone, did not play against the players I played against but they were incredibly interesting to talk to, great stories. I am a great historian and of course my first coach Peter Lundgren when I came on Tour, it was very very interesting for me to have as an older brother there who told me all the tricks on the tour, when to practice, how to practice, where I should practice, which tournaments to play and also with him I won my first Grand Slam, so I am really thankful to all my coaches and then, of course, I also had a wonderful fitness coach, Pierre Paganini, who has been with me basically the whole way."
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2UJAT5B
No comments