Roger Federer: “If Nadal’s Gonna be Able to Defend Good For Him”

World no. 3, Roger Federer warns arch-rival, Rafael Nadal, ahead of their semifinal clash at the Wimbledon Championships 2019. The 8-time Wimbledon Champion reveals that he will play attacking tennis and test the defense of the Spaniard during their 40th meeting on Friday.

Roger Federer feels that either he can look into the numbers and tactics before the match or just go there and play aggressive tennis. He further added, “Look, you can go deep into tactics and numbers, or you can just think it’s grass tennis, go out there, play attacking tennis and see if he’s gonna be able to defend, good for him.”

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will face off at the Wimbledon Championships after 11 years. It will be their first meeting at the All England Lawn Tennis Club since the epic 2008 finals. However, Roger Federer reveals that he will treat this high-voltage match like every other match.

“At the end, it is a match like every other match, my preparations for round one match are the same as for a Semifinal or Final,” the Swiss added.

However, Federer further added that he will obviously analyze Nadal’s game with the help of Seve and Ivan before coming into the match. He continued, “Of course, we will look into Rafa‘s matches here and analyze his game, Seve and Ivan will do that and then give me their advice before the match“ 

“Well, we have a lot of information on Rafa, and so does he about us,” Federer said. “It’s grass-court tennis and I’m going to come out there and play attacking tennis.’ And if he can defend that, that’s too good. And if he can’t, well, then, that’s good for me.”

Roger Federer finished his quarterfinal on Wednesday, rallying past through Kei Nishikori to defeat him 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-4, on Centre Court. Rafael Nadal soon joined him after cruising past through the big serve of the American Sam Querrey to win, 7-5, 6-2, 6-2, on No. 1 Court.

Both the players are playing at a very high level at the Wimbledon Championships 2019, especially in their service games. The 37-year-old leads, having won 96% of his service games, that is  74 out of 77. While Rafael Nadal is not behind winning 69 out of 73 games on his serve.