Roger Federer has a strange confession in Cincinnati: the fear of losing in the opener.
The Swiss Maestro is coming from a great year especially if you compare 2014 with a disastrous 2013. The World no.3 says that the transition from Toronto to Cincinnati is tricky and the loss of Tsonga in the first round is no good for him.
Federer: The fear is always there in first rounds
Roger commented “That’s not very good for me, either, when I see that happening. From that standpoint, the fear is always there from the first rounds regardless of how you approach a tournament. But a lot of things have happened in the last year for me, and I’m happy that most of it has been really positive for me.
“Because I’ve played last week, I’m just hoping to get through the first round just because I know how hard it is to transition with sort of a day-and-a-half of practice and then having to play a difficult best-of-three set match. Of course if I do win that first round, I have higher hopes to going really deep into the tournament and even winning it.”
The opener vs. Pospisil
Roger will play the first match against Vasek Pospisil that has defeated Stepanek in the first round. Head to head is 2-0 for the Maestro.
