In Roger Federer's words: 'I'm extremely down right now, it was quite bad'

In 2001, Roger Federer made a breakthrough run at Wimbledon, beating the seven-time champion Pete Sampras in the fourth round before falling in the quarters to Tim Henman in four tight sets. Twelve months later, the Swiss returned at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club as the top-10 player and one of the favorites, hoping to go even further than a year ago. Nonetheless, the 2002 Wimbledon campaign turned out to be a rather quick and unsuccessful one for Federer, losing to an 18-year-old Mario Ancic 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 on June 25. In what was his first Grand Slam match (he was the runner-up at the junior event in 2000), the Croat ranked 154th had to qualify for the main draw as one of the youngest players in the field, entering only the second ATP event after Miami in March. The defending champion Goran Ivanisevic was not in the draw and another hard-hitting player from Split was there to replace him in style, firing one booming serve after another to keep Federer without any rhythm, with his return working better than Roger's as well.

Ancic needed an hour and 40 minutes to take down the most prominent youngster at that moment, repelling five out of six break chances and stealing Roger's serve on three occasions to notch straight-sets triumph, his first on the ATP level! Ancic was the youngest player to make a winning Wimbledon Centre Court debut since Bjorn Borg in distant 1973, drawing only positive vibes from the big scene and delivering a barrage of aggressive and attacking strokes to leave Roger behind and celebrate the proudest moment in a career up to that point! The Croat kicked off the encounter in the best possible way, breaking Federer twice in the opening set to take it 6-3 in just 29 minutes. There were no breaks in set number two before Mario won the tie break 7-2, playing better when it mattered the most and sealing Federer's fate with a break in the fourth game of the third set to bring the victory home without any troubles or loose moments that would have been expected from an inexperienced teenager. 

"I'm still looking for reasons why I played so bad; I'm terribly down right now and it's quite normal after such a loss. I expected much more than coming here and losing in straight sets; I'm disappointed and I haven't got any words at the moment. I knew Mario was young but not much more; I tried to get some information from other players as many of them hit with him, unlike me. Besides that information, I couldn't figure out his game today. I let him play well today and I'm down about my game today; it was quite bad. I mean, I had my chances in the second set and missed them all. I had the break in the first but couldn't take my chances today. I was 40-0 up on the return once in the second set and that was my only big chance and I didn't make it. Usually, I prefer to be in a favored role. I still think Arazi was a very tough opponent at the French Open. Here, I mean, usually, I should win this match. I was a big favorite over Ancic but he played well today. It is very disappointing to lose back to back first round in Grand Slams. I'm looking for reasons why but I have time to figure that out, so we'll see."

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3aoUi31