
World No. 2 Roger Federer has opened up on beating his arch-rival Rafael Nadal in the 2017 Australian Open final.
Federer surprised everybody, including himself defeated Nadal in last year’s Aussie Open final. Disclosing his mindset ahead of that epic title clash against the Spanish superstar, Federer revealed he wasn’t even expecting to progress beyond the semifinals before reaching his sixth final at Melbourne Park. In fact, his expectations were so low that he saw himself losing to Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic or Nadal.
Describing his run to his 18th Grand Slam crown Down Under as a fairytale, Federer claimed that the fifth set he played against Nadal was perhaps the best he had ever played.
The Swiss great is the overwhelming favorite to claim his 20th Major title in Melbourne. Federer, who will open his title defense against Slovenia’s Aljaz Bedene, is in the tougher lower half of the draw. Six-time champion Djokovic, 2014 winner Stan Wawrinka, World No. 4 Alexander Zverev, 5th seed Dominic Thiem and former top-tenners Gael Monfils and Tomas Berdych all could meet him at some point in the tournament.
“I had a great four to six weeks of tennis training and many months before that which got me ready for the training,” Federer said.
“I felt like physically I might be alright but I thought the game and the wins were just not going to come.
“I was probably going to lose at some stage, the quarter-finals or the semi-finals at best because I would just run into a red-hot [Novak] Djokovic, [Andy] Murray or Nadal and my game wasn’t going to be good enough. But it was!”
“I had all these great five-setters and of course at the end that epic against Rafa,” Federer added.
“The fifth set was maybe the best set I ever played.
“After six months off, what a comeback that was.
“It was the highlight of the year. It even beats Wimbledon and all the other wins I had last year.”