Roger Federer has admitted for the first time to having nagging doubts that his time at the top was coming to an end and seeing the need to step up his game as a posse of young challengers looked to unseat him from his lofty throne.
A series of illness and slight injuries, several of which he kept private, took an effect. "Maybe I started to doubt my body, I started to doubt the situation," he said.
"I felt that eventually I wouldn’t be as successful as I had been, which was strange because at the end of 2007 I was practicing that I was playing my best tennis of my life. Then I got sick and I got here to Melbourne, I couldn’t practice, but I still thought I managed to play a great tournament to make it to the semis.
“But after that I had to catch up with so much, the other guys were playing tough and the margins are small at the top of the game. It was definitely interesting to go through it, because a career is not meant to be easy. You always have to go through ups and downs. And I think I was well prepared for it. That’s why even when it was tough I was still able to enjoy it and stay calm, because I always question myself, even in the best of times.”
Federer was talking a day after his fourth Australian Open victory increased his record-breaking haul of Grand Slams to 16. After winning the first major of the year, he is once again on course to become the first man since Rod Laver to complete the complete Grand Slam in one calendar year but he insists that has never been one of his ambitions in tennis.
He prefers to simply focus on maintaining his dominance and said: "I have had to work really hard. Now, my backhand is where I want it to be, my forehand is back because I think that also left me a little bit when my footwork wasn’t at my best because I knew I didn’t want to play defense and pressed too much with my forehand. I don’t do that too much any more and my confidence is back, so it’s a lot easier to play again now.”
Bob Larson - Publisher
Cort Larson - Editor
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