Roger Federer after Halle-Aus: "That wasn't the player I usually am"
After his early retirement in Halle,Roger Federer first needed some time to collect himself.
by Jörg Allmeroth
last edit: Jun 17, 2021, 11:51 am
Even after the bitterest defeats, Roger Federer actually likes to make short work of it. Quickly into the press conference, a few dutiful remarks about the end of the sport, maybe some praise for the opponent and the tournament organizer - and then let's get away from the place of failure.
But when Federer retired earlier than ever in his other tennis paradise Halle on Wednesday afternoon, with 6: 4, 3: 6 and 2: 6 in round two against the 20-year-old Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, the world star appeared initially for a long time. An hour passed, another hour passed: Where was Federer? What did the disappearance mean? The 39-year-old was not seen again until 7.15 p.m., during the virtual press conference Federer reported back with the words “Hello, folks”.
Federer: "Who knows what I would have got carried away"
And it didn't take long before Federer explained why he had first disappeared from the scene, away to the nearby players' hotel, to his family, to his team. “I didn't want to give a sweaty interview when I was first excited. I needed my time, I needed distance. Who knows what I would have let myself be carried away, ”said Federer. Yes what for? Maybe a Wimbledon waiver? Maybe to an angry self-accusation, to angry, angry analysis of the ultimately disturbing performance? “It was good that I talked to my team in peace,” said Federer, “now the motto is: Keep your head up and on. Wimbledon will see a different Federer. Something like this won't happen again. "
By which the 20-time Grand Slam winner naturally meant the dreary, deplorable finish of the game against the highly talented Auger Aliassime. After the 1: 1 set compensation of the challenger, who is exactly 19 years younger than Federer to the day, the Halle record champion (ten titles) collapsed catastrophically. Federer did something that was actually alien to him by nature: he let the game go, he no longer defended himself, he lost without a real fight, without real rebellion. "That wasn't the player I usually am," said Federer later with sober harshness, "this attitude was just bad."
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Federer: "I cannot accept the final sentence"
In those minutes and moments, Federer almost seemed as if he were buried under an overwhelming psychological burden: The long months of desperate comeback efforts, now the everyday troubles of the stage - and the realization sunk into consciousness how difficult it is to return to the top in the end will be. "Suddenly you realize how hard you have to fight for every point, every game, every victory," said Federer. And when he sat in his chair during the breaks, with sagging shoulders and a bitter expression, there was no one who could really cheer him up - the pandemic, the orphaned stadium, the missing fans, the missing chants did the rest. The lonely cheers from wife Mirka or coach Ivan Ljubicic could not lighten Federer's mood alone. "It was just a misfortune how it ended here today," said Federer later, "I can't accept such a final sentence from myself."
One thing became clear once again during Federer's shortest guest appearance in Halle (he never left the quarter-finals until Wednesday): His comeback after two knee operations and more than a year off from competitions from January 2020 to March 2021 will demand more from him than anyone of his 20 Grand Slam victories or other center court coups. His toughest opponent this time is himself, Roger Federer, who has now come to doubts and brooding after an encouraging rehab period. Who apparently expected too much from himself too soon. “It is very difficult to predict where the path will lead”, noted the German top player Jan-Lennard Struff, “time has not stood still. It is definitely unusual to see him lose so often. "Especially in Halle it will now be simply" strange ", said Struff," that Roger will be absent from the final weekend. "