Roger Federer looked back on his past appearances in Key Biscayne with mixed feelings before his opening match at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Miami. On the one hand, the maestro celebrated his greatest triumph as a junior there, but on the other hand, he remembers a terrible debut at Masters level.
19 years ago, the organizers of the Miami Open equipped Federer with a wild card as number 125 in the world. A year earlier, he secured the Orange Bowl, the most prestigious title for juniors, at Crandon Park, with wins over David Nalbandian and Guillermo Coria, among others, making him the number one youngster.
“After that, I thought to myself,’Who knows?’ I could one day become the number one professional,” Federer said on Thursday: “This goal was still miles away, but having this dream helped me win the Orange Bowl.”
In his first professional match in Miami, Federer met the Dane Kenneth Carlsen: “I was really looking forward to the match,” Federer said on Thursday, “Getting the wild card for Miami was a big deal. “Unfortunately, I played a terrible match with a horrible attitude.”
The Swiss lost to Carlsen after one hour and 42 minutes with 5:7, 6:7(4).
Since then, Federer has won the Miami tournament three times, most recently last year when he beat Rafael Nadal in two sets in the final. However, this time the Maestro will not travel to Florida with a title from Indian Wells in his luggage. In the final, the 36-year-old, who would only defend his top position in the world rankings in Miami with a quarter-final entry, narrowly lost to Juan Martin del Potro.
“It always takes a few days to recover from a high-intensity weekend,” said Federer.
But the lost final doesn’t hide Federer’s satisfaction with the level of his game: “It didn’t take me long to get over it. It could have gone both ways. I think I’ve been lucky enough on my side for the last 14 months, so it’s okay if I lose one or two matches now.”
Federer will face Thanasi Kokkinakis at the opening match of the 2018 Miami Open on Saturday, who only had to give up three games against Calvin Hemery from France in the first round.