World No.1 Novak Djokovic has fiercely responded to allegations that he ‘handed’ the win to Roger Federer at the ATP Finals on Tuesday.
The top seed suffered a straight sets loss to Federer in his second match at the ATP World Tour Finals on Tuesday. It is the third time that Djokovic has lost to the Swiss this year. Shortly after his loss a bitterly disappointed Djokovic spoke about his below-par performance, suggesting that it was his poor play which lead to Federer’s triumph.
“Credit to Roger for mixing up the pace, giving me always a different ball. He used the slice and spin very wisely. He served very efficiently”. Djokovic said.
“I made a lot of unforced errors. I Just handed him the win, especially in the second set.”
Following Djokovic’s 21st win over Tomas Berdych, he spoke once again about his comments regarding his loss to Federer. The Serbian has insisted that the comments wasn’t intended to be interpreted that way, hitting out at the media by saying that the reports are ‘not fair’.
“It’s not fair. There is no need to create any kind of bad blood between Roger and me because I said what I needed to say, that he deserved to win that match, he was a better player”. An annoyed Djokovic said.
At world No.1 Djokovic is used to dealing with the constant influx of media stories generated about him and his family. He revealed that he tries to ignore the media as much as he can during this week’s ATP Finals to avoid being distracted from his play.
After clarifying his comments regarding Federer, he also talked the rivalries he has with the Swiss player as well as Rafael Nadal. Recently Federer has spoken about which rivalry he thinks is the most special to him. Unlike the 34-year-old, the Serbian was more diplomatic in his response.
“In terms of amount of matches played, maybe there were some matches that were long and epic against Rafa. I played against him in longer, more exciting matches. On the other hand, with Grand Slam finals, I think they were more exciting with Roger, especially in the last couple of years”. He said.
“So both of them. It’s been amazing rivalries I had with both of them”. Djokovic concluded.
The next match for Djokovic will be against Rafael Nadal in the semifinals of the year-end championships.
