Tennys Sandgren describes what he felt after heartbreaking Roger Federer loss

Ranked 100th, Tennys Sandgren repeated her Melbourne magic from 2018 a couple of weeks ago, reaching his second Australian Open quarter-final following wins over Matteo Berrettini and Fabio Fognini. In the battle for the first Major semi-final, Tennys played against the 20-time Major champion Roger Federer, delivering one of his best performances ever and standing on the verge of victory against world no. 3. After three hours and 31 minutes, the Swiss legend prevailed 6-3, 2-6, 2-6, 7-6, 6-3, fending off seven match points in the fourth set and performing one of his most dramatic escapes ever. Struggling with a groin injury, Federer couldn't do much in sets two and three, overpowered by a brave American completely before he found his strokes again in set number four to stay in touch.

Facing a certain elimination, Federer erased those break chances in the tenth game and the tie break, staying alive and gathering massive boost ahead of the decider where he had the upper hand to seal the deal and leave Tennys empty-handed. Squandering a huge opportunity to beat one of the greatest players of all time, Sandgren needed some time to process the loss and the encounter in general, feeling disappointment in the first couple of hours after the clash trying to take all the positive things together with his family, coaches and friends. Standing on the verge of the top-50 with those points, Tenys will try to repeat the Melbourne run at big tournaments again, losing in the first round of New York Open to Steve Johnson in another thriller that required the deciding tie break.

"The first hour or two hours after the match, you are just disappointed. You can't continuously think about something in a negative way and you have to flip that into something positive. There were many positive things to take from that encounter. My family, coaches and friends were there for me; they all felt for me. They wanted to make sure I was okay, and that I took the positives and was okay with the fact that I didn't win, things like that. They were gutted for me, too."

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/31QWD3S