Four opponents with whom the young Roger Federer had great problems
Yes, there was a time when Roger Federer was not faced with the biggest problems by Novak Djokovic or Rafael Nadal . We remember four men who tortured the maestro properly.
by Jens Huiber
last edit: Mar 24, 2020, 09:04 pm
Roger Federer's career is slowly drawing to a close, however, especially in times like these, the date on which the soon 39-year-old will give up his racket is even more difficult to estimate. The last major highlight was the Olympic Games in Tokyo, but the host of this summer seems almost impossible. And so Federer may still be at the start next year, measuring himself against opponents with his old rivals Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal and the next generation.
But we want to look back on those years in which Federer was already playing for the big titles, but was always chewing his teeth at some of the players. Until it worked. And please …
Tim Henman, final balance against Federer: 6: 7
The Briton, with his classic attack game, presented Roger Federer with massive problems from their first meeting in 1999 in Basel. Henman won six of the first seven matches against Federer, including the 2001 Wimbledon quarter-finals - after the Swiss had just defeated Pete Sampras. Federer's first win came in Miami in 2002 - but there he benefited from Henman's job. However, the last big hurray for Tim Henman was in Rotterdam in 2004. The following six games were all won by the Maestro, who overall secured a happy ending.
David Nalbandian, final balance against Federer: 8:11
Nalbandian also made a career start against Federer: The Argentinian won the first five matches, including two at Majors (2003 at the Australian Open and the US Open). Federer's first win was convincing 6-3, 6-0 at the ATP Finals in Houston in the same year, but in Shanghai 2005 Nalbandian prevailed in the final of the season's final tournament in the tiebreak of the fifth set. And even if Federer ended up with a positive record against the Wimbledon finalist from 2002: he couldn't really solve the riddle of David Nalbandian.
Lleyton Hewitt, final balance against Federer: 9:18
We should be talking about the “young” Roger Federer. And he had massive problems with Lleyton Hewitt, losing seven of the first nine matches between 1999 and 2003, two of them in the David Cup. Between the Australian Open 2004 and 2010 Federer took 15 wins in a row against Hewitt, who can boast of having won the last encounter of the two: 2014 in the final of Brisbane with 6: 1, 4: 6, 6: 3.
Gilles Simon, current record against Federer: 2: 7
Well, the difficulties Federer had against the flatterer from France were really limited to the first two games. In 2008 Simon won both the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Montreal and the ATP Finals in Shanghai. After that, however, Federer took command and is currently riding a seven-match winning streak. But which could still be interrupted. After all, both Gilles Simon and Roger Federer are actively involved in the ATP business.