Roger Federer believes only positives have come from his performances in Doha after he was knocked out in the quarter-finals of the tournament.
The 20-time Grand Slam champion spoke about his return to competitive tennis following his 6-3, 1-6, 5-7, loss to Nikoloz Basilashvili. This week he returned to the Tour for the first time in 14 months after being sidelined with a knee injury which required two surgeries.
“I come from so far away I am actually happy I got to play back to back three-set matches against top players, that’s an important step forward for me, I’m not at 100% yet, I can feel it and I can see it. I want to be 100% by the grass-court season, I know that I am still building up so this is a stepping stone. I’m actually happy how I felt on court (which is) overall better against Dan (Evans) physically, naturally but I think Basilashvili plays a totally different game to Dan and that’s probably why I struggled a bit more”
Federer was asked if he is in fact considering playing Dubai next week.
“I haven’t decided yet with the team, I was going to speak to them once the tournament is over and now that’s the case. Probably tomorrow we will do that at some point or tonight but I didn’t want to talk about it yesterday (Wednesday) because I wanted to rest and think about the next match and also enjoy the victory from.”
He also added if before the match if he felt any effect from the his win yesterday over Evans and if that played a factor since he hadn’t been playing regularly.
“I honestly expected to feel this way, the whole shoulder I feel the muscle pain, I honestly didn’t expect it here in the shoulder with serving the whole time but that comes with the pressure and in those matches, you go with that extra 5%. I tried to do it time and time again, I felt today was a more levelled performance where yesterday I felt up and down but overall the body is actually fine, I’m happy, It could be much worse”
The Swiss world number six gave his reasoning why he put the time frame to be at 100% by Wimbledon.
” I might be better earlier but that would be a bonus, to be honest when I took the second surgery I was playing more for the Australian Open but when I saw the progress was slow I had to be careful, I had lost all muscles basically we needed to pick a schedule.”
Federer finished by answering whether he felt the loss was a hard one to take or if he is already over it.
“I’m already over it, I would have loved to play tomorrow don’t get me wrong but at the same time I am happy to get rest. I’m happy how I played today, happy how I played yesterday and I’m happy I was back on the tour. I’m pleased I came to Doha and it’s a really positive return for me and I’m really happy.”
