The Swiss maestro is happy to be back on the court but was disappointed with the result at the Gonet Geneva Open.
Follow Us
Pablo Andujar spoiled Roger Federer’s return to action with an emphatic 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 victory at the Gonet Geneva Open on Tuesday. This was Federer’s first match since March when the Swiss maestro lost in the Doha quarterfinals. Despite being happy to be back on the court, Federer is disappointed with the result. “It’s good to be back on the court, but then you lost a match like this and you’re down. It never feels great. I was looking forward to playing here, no doubt about it,” he said.
“But this is a press conference where I have to explain how I feel about losing, which is never the greatest way of trying to explain why and how it all happened. But of course there were moments where I was really happy to entertain the crowd and [I was] looking at the long road that I’ve been on from the comeback.
“Sure, it’s rewarding to be back on a tennis court. But I expect better from myself. I feel like in practice I’ve been playing better, even in practice here. But then again as we know, matches are a different animal. I’ve got my work cut out there.”
At one point in the third set, Federer was leading 4-2 and was cruising towards victory. But things went downhill from there on. “Of course at 4-2 in the third you feel like, ‘Oh, that’s nice that I was able to turn around the match.’ You start feeling better and that’s when it dips and everything is over 10 minutes later,” he elaborated.
“But we know how tennis goes and that’s where it’s so brutal sometimes. But I feel like I didn’t deserve it at the end. There was just not enough happening in my game.”
The Swiss star praised his opponent for his showing, but admitted that he was not able to deliver the goods regularly. “I just could feel that [as] the moment was getting tougher, the game wasn’t there,” Federer said.
“Obviously [I was] missing way too much maybe to come through even though [I was up] 4-3 and a break. The chances were all there. But again I thought he played good down the stretch and I just couldn’t come up with the goods.”
This was only Federer’s second tournament since the Australian Open in 2020 after undergoing two arthroscopic right knee surgeries. He earlier played in March when the Swiss maestro lost in the Doha quarterfinals.
