Roger Federer shares thoughts about John Isner's foot injury
"I mean, I guess after John called the trainer and I saw his face after the first point after the trainer, I was unsure about his health. But then, he had a good game where he did hit his spots, hitting them so short, it was crazy. So I felt like, well, he can at least do that. I have seen John being incredibly tired and still serving his spots. I knew he could do that. One match came to my mind, I think it was against Roddick at the US Open in the fifth set when just kept doing the same thing for the whole fifth set and was able to beat him in the breaker. I felt, well, you never know. And, I could also start missing because of this whole situation.
But then, of course, as in my service games, that's when the true test. How much defense can he do, how much running around can he do? And this is maybe when I was thinking, this is maybe not just one game. And the latest, by the 5-4 game when he was starting to serve instead of at least 120, 125, he was starting to drop it to 105, 110, and I felt, now it's not looking good. I saw him taking a painkiller, and that doesn't kick in for the next three minutes. That usually takes 25 minutes to 30 minutes. And I know with foot pain that these things feel like it's the end of your career, but at the same time, two minutes later, you could be totally fine again, so it's a tricky one.
You don't want to get too overexcited to think, well, let's quickly finish this as quick as possible, because it could be this point or first couple of points he's serving slow, and then he starts serving big again, because all of a sudden the pain is gone or it's less. And that's why it was just important to keep on doing what I was doing, and if he's hurt, well, then that's, so be it, and bad luck for him. And I think this is where experience kicks in for me. I'm able to stay calm and just do it. You feel bad at the same time, but it's part of the journey, I guess. And after the game, you hope it's nothing serious and I hope he's fine. But it's tricky, no doubt."
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2JYbkgv
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