Roger Federer: From Tanking to a 100th Title

In today’s day and age, ‘tanking’ is not a word that one would normally associate with Roger Federer. However, during the press conference of the Dubai Duty Free Championships, Federer made a startling revelation.

According to him, more than a decade ago, he was once accused of tanking, incidentally at the same tournament. The Swiss maestro crashed out of the second round, losing to Germany’s Rainer Schuttler. The score ended in a 6-3, 6-1 defeat at the hands of the German.

Meanwhile, Fabrice Santoro went on to seal the title, besting Moroccan player Younes El Aynaoui. The match was a 3-setter, with Santoro drawing first blood before Aynaoui gave a fitting reply, but Santoro closed out the final set for victory.

Coming back to Roger Federer, he confessed during the Dubai press conference, “I was young & crazy… Sometimes you have to learn it the hard way. ”

That year, the Dubai organisers even threatened to withhold his prize money at the time. However, Federer had the last laugh as he came back to clinch three back-to-back titles in a row.

To make matters even sweeter, he has now clinched his 100th career title. This feat puts him just 9 behind tennis legend Jimmy Connors.

He explained, “Yeah it was a tricky situation because I was in the second round of singles and doubles and I was accused of tanking. I was playing frustrated in the last couple of games against Rainer Schuttler. I was young and I was crazy and I was so fed up with my game and started to go for the big shots.”

Apparently, the tournament director did not appreciate such a stunt and withheld the prize money from the Swiss ace.

From that point on, when he came back in the following year, he had a point to prove. In addition to his 100th career title, he also exacted revenge on Stefanos Tsitsipas.

The Greek sensation stunned Federer during the Australian Open 2019 and Federer was eager to avenge that defeat.