Retired South African Tennis Legend Reveals Intricate Details About How His Mindset Before Thumping Roger Federer at Wimbledon – ‘The Match Was Almost Lost..’

Published 06/29/2023, 9:30 AM EDT

As a sort of flash-back, Kevin Anderson, the former star South African player, looked back at the 2018 Wimbledon final, where he probably caused the biggest upset in the tournament history when he defeated the now-retired Roger Federer in the quarterfinals. He reminisced about that in a recent interview and told that it was never easy facing a player like Roger Federer. Nobody had given him a chance of upsetting the great Roger Federer, especially in his own den, the grass courts at Wimbledon. But Anderson took that as a challenge and did the unthinkable.

Defeating Roger Federer on a tennis court on any surface is a daunting task to do. And to do that in Wimbledon, where Federer thrives and dominates other players, is something special. And that’s exactly what Kevin Anderson felt after achieving that.

A win that he cherishes forever

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Kevin Anderson retired on a high in 2022 after reaching his highest ranking of world no.5 in 2018. He won seven titles and reached two Slam finals in his illustrious career. Anderson had won that 2018 Wimbledon quarterfinal match, coming from two sets to love down to finally vanquish Roger Federer 2-6,6-7,7-5,6-4,13-11. In the process, he had saved a match point in the third set to do that. Anderson says that it is never easy to face players like Federer. Because the negative mindset automatically hops in because of how great those players are and how little he feels in front of them. He also says that he feels very nervous while taking on them, but he relishes that challenge.

He says thus, “For me, it was just always challenging playing those top guys and I think for almost all the matches I’ve played against those guys, the match was almost lost before I even stepped onto the court. It would’ve taken something really remarkable given how nervous I was. I dealt with that. But that’s the challenge, that’s what makes it tough to play those guys.”

Anderson next faced John Isner and beat him in another marathon match, going for more than 6 hours and 30 minutes. However, Anderson faltered in the final to the then world no.1 Novak Djokovic.

The mindset shift in the second set

Anderson confessed in that interview that he believed he would lose to these top players like Federer even before stepping onto the court. But somehow at the beginning of the second set of that Wimbledon duel, his mindset took a sudden turn, and from then on he became more solid and that helped beat Federer even though it took saving a match point.

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He says, “And that’s why, it wasn’t like something happened in that moment because I think if it did it would have been too short a period of time to really have that much of an impact. I feel like the reason I even had a chance of saving match point was because of my mindset shift at the beginning of the second set.”

Admittedly, the defeatist mindset is what that had caused talented players like Kevin Anderson from beating top players in the Grand Slams.

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This is one of the greatest upsets in Wimbledon history and a victory that Anderson and the tennis world would remember for a long, long time.

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Written by:

Tony Sam is a Tennis Writer at EssentiallySports. After completing his Post Graduation in English literature, Sam has been honing his skills to achieve the pinnacle in his dream career as a sports journalist. He has been a huge fan of tennis right from his childhood years with a special admiration for the 'King of Clay' Rafael Nadal and his warrior like attitude.

Edited by:

Debmallya Chakraborty

Retired South African Tennis Legend Reveals Intricate Details About How His Mindset Before Thumping Roger Federer at Wimbledon – ‘The Match Was Almost Lost..’

A win that he cherishes forever

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The mindset shift in the second set