Roger Federer has been hugely successful in his career not only for his fantastic tennis but also for being able to find the right balance on and off the court.
As Roger likes to remind to the interviewers, even if he enjoyed a lot of success he also lost many times very tough matches.
Before this Miami Open, Federer lost the Indian Wells final at the very end of the deciding set to Dominic Thiem and the Swiss was the favorite.
Of course, this loss wasn’t as tough as the one that the Maestro endured last year also in the Indian Wells final when he was unable to convert multiple championship points (and on serve) against Juan Martin Del Potro before losing in 3 sets. However, still stings losing a title when you are so close to the finishing line.
Federer was too emotional when a teenager
During a recent interview on the occasion of the Miami Open, Roger was asked how he copes with defeat and if he shrugged off his recent loss at the Indian Wells final.
The world no.5 commented
“Nowadays I am able to flush them [defeats] out quickly. I was the worst at it when I was a teenager, when I was younger I was so emotional about it, and I mean especially right after it was all over [I was like] you would cry and be like so so sad and disappointed. I wasn’t the angry person. For me, it was just like it just broke my heart losing.
Nowadays I feel like ‘look I gave all I had, Thiem came up with the goods, I maybe didn’t.’ That’s it; it’s over, we can’t go back in time. There is a lot of matches that I would like to go back in time and play again, but this one [against Thiem] not so much, it just didn’t happen and really well done to Dominic.
Even when I was up on the podium, I felt like ‘you know what? It’s over'”
Getting wiser and wiser.
