I do not regret playing in the same era as Rafael Nadal, says Roger Federer
Roger Federer does not regret playing in the same era as Rafael Nadal. The Swiss player lost many big finals to the Spaniard, and some weeks ago the 1976 French Open winner Adriano Panatta said that Federer would have 30-40 Grand Slam titles if Nadal was not there. "I think everybody had good rivals along the way. Lendl, Becker, Sampras, Edberg, Laver... everybody had great rivals and if it wasn't me, it was somebody else who would have been there and the same for Nadal. So we are happy to have each other and we can both be very proud that we had great careers, one alongside the other. It's very unique", Federer said.
Asked what he was thinking during his 2008 Wimbledon final loss to Nadal, Federer replied: "Don't lose, please! Go into the fifth set and just try to somehow stay alive and maybe try to win the match but it was so close, it was such an epic match. I am happy I pushed it to the fifth and made it the match everybody talks about now. Because if I had lost in the fourth set and missed the backhand passing shot to save match point and to go win it, people would have not talked about it so much. Like this it made a great match, an epic winning moment for him but for me, I was proud that I played as well as I did there and my run at Wimbledon came to an end this way, in a spectacular fashion and not in a horrible finals where you gonna look back and go like, What did I do, it was terrible. It was not like that, it was one of the great matches."
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2KypxRE
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