Roger Federer Gives Advice To Matteo Berrettini

Despite having a successful tour on grass, Matteo Berrettini was dispatched by the World Number three, Roger Federer 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 in the fourth round of Wimbledon Championships 2019. As soon as the match concluded, on the net the big server, Berrettini felicitated the Swiss and said, “Thanks for the tennis lesson, how much do I owe you?”

Also, Berrettini’s team expressed their gratitude to Federer for exercising his dominance over his 14 years younger opponent. “His coach congratulated me and thanked me, almost,” Roger Federer said. “I was like, ‘Why?’ He was like, ‘It’s good for him to get a lesson.”

Federer believes that straight-set match loss helps a player to grow from within and also strengthens one’s foundation. Failures are the best teachers in the world, and Federer’s one-sided losses have taught him a lot.

He regards that Berrettini’s dismantle on the Centre Court would aid him to work upon his game. The Swiss gave his examples from his earlier years on the tour and Berrettini’s loss could draw parallels with those instances.

In the midst of the tennis season 2001, he was the new young wave created in the tennis world, as he won over Pete Sampras in Wimbledon. Since then, the world anticipated Federer to create ripples on the men’s tour, but in the very next Slam, the young Swiss talent could just win seven games against Andre Agassi in the fourth round of US Open 2001.

“I thought I was going to take Andre out. Nah. You get smashed, go home, don’t understand what happened. You realise, Well, I’ve just got to work harder. It’s that simple,” added Roger Federer.

He also mentioned about his late night straight-set defeat to Max Mirnyi at the New York major in 2002 which aided him to examine the shortcomings of his game and work upon them again and again.

“One day at the US Open, I played Max Mirnyi, I waited 10 hours to play, it was raining all day,” Roger Federer continued. “They sent me out at 11:00 pm, I believe, Court Eight, lost in straight sets, went to McDonald’s at two in the morning. You’re like, What happened? Some losses you can’t explain. It’s okay to take a step back, but then you have to take two forward. I hope that’s what he does exactly from today on.”

Roger Federer did not lament his Slam losses to big players in 2001 and 2002, rather the Swiss had a single-pointed meditation over his ultimate goal in life and consequently, in 2003 he lifted his first major at SW19.

Besides that the same year, he amassed seven ATP titles, won more than 80 per cent of his matches tour (which incorporated his wins over, Andy Roddick, James Blake, Ivan Ljubicic, Fabrice Santoro, Carlos Moya, Max Miryni and Andre Agassi) and concluded the year as the World Number two tennis player.