'The atmosphere to play against Roger Federer is always different', says former Top 5

Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka took Swiss tennis to a level that was hard to imagine until the turn of the new millennium. Despite having been great rivals on the pitch, the two compatriots have always respected each other and joined forces in 2014 to lead their national team to Davis Cup triumph. The Lausanne veteran has had to deal with a serious knee injury in recent years, which has prevented him from being as competitive as he would have liked. These are not easy times even for the former world number 1, who only played in the Australian Open in 2020 and underwent two surgeries in the space of a few weeks. In a recent interview, the three-time Grand Slam champion recalled one of his most exciting matches against Federer. We are talking about the semi-final of the 2014 ATP Finals, when Roger won the decisive tiebreak after having canceled four matches.

Wawrinka on his relationship with Roger Federer

The match was a headliner. It was a rollercoaster. Stan Wawrinka was playing his best tennis that year and surely took Federer and his fans close to a heart attack. “I think I was playing one of my best level that year in 2014.” Roger Federer had saved four match points to win the encounter late in the final set tiebreaker. Even though Wawrinka lost the match it was a special one for him. The sheer topsy-turvy nature might be the reason he adores it so much. “It was an amazing memory. A lot of things happened in that match. I had match points, I served for the match and against Roger in the semifinal. So it was always going to be a special match. We played Davis Cup straight after, yeah but the atmosphere to play against Roger is always different, and it’s very special.” The season finale featuring the best eight players of the year takes place at London’s O2 for the final time before it heads to Turin in 2021. Djokovic recently tied Pete Sampras’ record of being the year-end world number one on six occasions and victory in the capital next week will see him tie Roger Federer’s tally of six ATP Finals victories. Djokovic and Nadal are joined in London by US Open champion Dominic Thiem, Alexander Zverev, defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas, Daniil Medvedev and newbies Andrey Rublev and Diego Schwartzman.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/38COqpr