Roger Federer didn’t start the 2016 season the same way he did in 2015. While 12 months ago the Swiss won the title in Brisbane, this year he lost in the final to Milos Raonic in straight sets. In his first week of the new season, Roger caught the flu and was feeling ill most of the time in Brisbane, unable to produce his best tennis.
“Now I am feeling good” reassured the 17-time Grand Slam champion meeting with the media in Melbourne. Considering how Roger was unable to perform his best game, but still managed to make it to the final in Brisbane, it’s easy to understand that the Swiss hasn’t come unprepared in Melbourne and has Grand Slam dreams still going. Last year Federer faced a shock defeat to Italian Andreas Seppi in the third round. Twelve months ago sitting in his corner was Stefan Edberg, this year the Swede will be replaced by Ivan Ljubicic.
“Stefan told me here last year that that was going to be his last season. Stefan and Ivan are two completely different persons, so it is normal that Ivan will tell me some things differently in different times and different ways. With Ivan it all happened at the end of last year. He told me he wasn’t going to keep on working with Milos Raonic and then I told him: ‘Would you be interested?’. He told me he would have liked to work with me and then I called him to confirm and he was happy to hear from me” Roger told reporters in Melbourne.
Federer will be playing in his 67th Grand Slam tournament, the 65th consecutive major. The man to beat in Melbourne will be Novak Djokovic. Asked about the Serb, Roger replied saying:
“It depends on how you see it. If you think of last year Novak has been the most dominating player. If you think of the Slams is not like that, because Stan won the French Open. There are other successful players: Stan, Murray, Rafa. Novak is doing really good, but it hasn’t been told that Stan is in his third season he could win a Grand Slam, after the past two seasons. I focus on my game, thus Novak is a piece of the puzzle, not the only important piece”.
Here is the VIDEO of Roger’s firs press conference in Melbourne:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhfx9WZB_Js
