Wawrinka: 'I feel sorry for Novak Djokovic. His retirement was a surprise'
Stan Wawrinka defeated Novak Djokovic by retirement when the Swiss was leading two sets to love. In a press conference, Wawrinka shared his sadness for the Serb's retirement: "It's never the way you want to finish a match. I feel sorry for Novak. He's a friend and an amazing champion. We've played some amazing battles all my career. It was a surprise (his retirement), because when you play a champion like him, I have been there many times in the past so you always expect to play against the best Novak.
I want to keep my level [from] tonight. I was playing some very good tennis. I am happy to be back", said Wawrinka. On how his previous two Grand Slams final wins over Djokovic in 2015 French Open and 2016 US Open gave him confidence, the Lausanne native added: "It helped me big time. Knowing that I have the game to beat him in that stadium. Tonight I was feeling great. I realised when I came to practice that I was moving well, so I was quite confident that I was going to bring a good level tonight. I have been practicin hard for many months. I know how it get to my best level. Sometimes I struggled a bit but I know that if I get wins, my confidence is back."
On his next match against Daniil Medvedev, Wawrinka concluded: "He's been playing final after final and winning Cincinnati. He's been playing very good tennis, It's going to be a very interesting match, I'm sure. I'm happy to be in the quarter-final and happy to play against him."
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2kaX1sS
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