Where would Roger Federer be without a special event in Hamburg in 2001? Probably not up front in the history books.
By Florian Goosmann from Stuttgart
“Not again”, “Not again”, “Not again”… Roger Federer had several déjà vu experiences in Stuttgart on Saturday. It was the third match of his career against Nick Kyrgios, and both ended with the closest of results so far: in each set, Kyrgios won in Madrid in 2015, then Federer in Miami in 2017. (And also in the unofficial game of the 2017 Laver Cup, Federer won a champions tiebreak.
In Stuttgart, set one also ended in a tie-break decision, and how brutal tennis is was well observed here. Federer had made a strong start to the match, had not let anything burn on his own serve and had made a good return on Kyrgios’ service, but it had not been enough to break despite two chances. In the tiebreak he acted with too few first serves and a little cautious – Kyrgios, on the other hand, was right there.
After the Australian had taken a break in set two, the tiebreak in the third came. Federer, still without a break point against him, served the first point strong, attacked well – and Kyrgios passed out of full run. “I just thought: “Now it’s going like in set one,” Federer confessed, but unpacked good returns and chipped the first match point past Kyrgios to a 6-7 (2), 6-2, 7-6 (5) victory.
At the match point, however, they came up again, thinking about his Weissenhof defeats in 2016 and 2017: “Normally it’s better to be ahead 6:5 than back. But the last time I was leading 6-5, I lost the matches. As much as I wanted to think positively, the Thiem- and Haas-Match were in my head.” At least in the end Federer also found it practical: “In the end you win, and sometimes you lose. It can’t always go its own way.” This time it was in his direction – at the end the first final will take place in the third attempt in Stuttgart; tomorrow from 1 pm it will be against Milos Raonic.
It was an entertaining match between Federer and Kyrgios, with fine lawn tennis, and the Australian was also much more motivated and satisfied than at the beginning of his Stuttgart mission. Many colleagues seem to have a special sympathy for him anyway – Federer is one of them. Especially since Kyrgios reminded him of himself before he changed his attitude to become more successful, as Federer said.
A decisive match on the way there had taken place in Germany. “I lost to Franco Squillari in Hamburg in 2001, lamented a lot again, was disappointed with my performance and commented on everything. So I decided to calm down.” With success. “After that, I reached the quarter-finals in Paris and Wimbledon, won against Sampras in Wimbledon. This has shown me that there is another way.”
Nevertheless, not everything is comparable to Kyrgios. “For him it’s more the concentration to motivate himself again and again to do the same thing at every point. That’s hard for him. I was more frustrated when I didn’t hit every ball. I guess I was looking too hard for perfectionism.”
But Federer had other reasons for the metamorphosis: “I was also embarrassed to behave in front of thousands of people. And almost to become known, even to the other players. That they said to each other: The feather will fall off anyway, all you have to do is stay on it. I wanted to be known for being mentally strong, not just talented.”
That was also a joint effort. “My family and crew told me to calm down, try something different.” After the decision in 2001, however, it took him two years to feel “at ease as a new version of myself”. “A long way, and I’m glad I got my act together.”
The still new version is once again the oldest number one in the world, with Federer at the top position on Monday in his 310th week. In Stuttgart, this was once again different from what had been achieved so far. In Grand Slams, the number one is not so central, explained Federer, “with a 250 or 500, it’s different.
But Rotterdam was another special case. He took the road there, in February of this year, precisely with this goal in mind. “That was pretty extreme. It was hard for me to say: I’m here, trying to win the tournament… Oh, world number one is also possible? I didn’t even know…”, Federer said. “It wouldn’t have been a good thing to be so naive.”
But even if it’s all just a bonus for the Swiss champion: “It feels good. And to make it with a tie-break win in the decisive set adds even more drama to the whole thing.”