Goffin: 'I don't know how to play Roger Federer'

David Goffin has never hidden that he is a big fan of Roger Federer. The Belgian tennis player faced the Swiss champion for the first time at the 2012 French Open, when the 20-time Grand Slam champion won in four sets. The former World number 1 has defeated Goffin 10 out of the 11 times that they have met on the court.

Goffin on his first match with Federer

“I was happy a little bit to see that I would play against my idol, but also I was super nervous because I was like, ‘Okay, I don’t know how it is to play against him.’... I was very tight until the first point of the match,” Goffin said about his first encounter with Roger Federer. Before their first match, Roger Federer was informed about how big a fan David Goffin was of him. "Not the first time it happens. It’s strange, weird. It’s everything you can imagine. I’m happy to hear it, though...So it’s a big match for him, and for me, too. It’s gonna be an unusual match for me, knowing that now,” Federer had said. "Nice game. He's a smooth ball-striker and talented, obviously," Federer had added, when asked to give his assessment of the young Belgian. No other male tennis player has won 20 major singles titles in the Open Era, and Roger Federer has been in 31 major finals, including 10 in a row. He has held the world No. 1 spot in the ATP rankings for longer than any other male player. He was ranked No. 1 at the age of 36 and has won a record eight Wimbledon titles. He won five consecutive US Open titles, which is the most in the Open Era. He has been voted by his peers to receive the tour Sportsmanship Award a record thirteen times and voted by tennis fans to receive the ATP Fans' Favorite award for seventeen consecutive years. Federer has been named the Swiss Sports Personality of the Year a record seven times. He has been named the ATP Player of the Year and ITF World Champion five times, and he has won the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award a record five times, including four consecutive awards from 2005 to 2008. He is also the only individual to have won the BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year award four times.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2MgfHlp