Roger Federer bows out of Wimbledon 2018

In press conference at Wimbledon after his second round match win over Lukas Lacko, Roger Federer commented on Switzerland loss to Sweden by 1-0 in the football World Cup. 'I was disappointed yesterday', the world No. 2 admitted. 'I expected more from the team. But that’s the thing with a knock-out. When you have to bring it like it was the finals every match, it’s 11 guys at the same time. It can’t just be three guys, eight guys. It needs to be everybody at the same time doing the same thing. I felt it’s an opportunity missed. I think we had our chance against Sweden. In the end, I thought they were maybe a little bit better. We didn’t create enough chances.

Roger Federer holds several ATP records and is considered to be one of the greatest tennis players of all time. The Swiss player has proved his dominance on court with 20 Grand Slam titles and 97 career ATP titles. In 2003, he founded the Roger Federer Foundation, which is dedicated to providing education programs for children living in poverty in Africa and Switzerland.   In Wimbledon 2018, continuing to play strong, Roger took on Adrian Mannarino to reach the Quarterfinals at the All England Club today. He has not lost a set and not lost serve this tournament. He faced 4 break points against Mannarino, but battled his way out of each of them and commanded play as he won 6-0, 7-5, 6-4.  Needing just 16 minutes to take the first set, the 8-time Wimbledon Champion has now won 32 consecutive sets at Wimbledon.

Disappointment for Roger Federer fans .. .. the Cape Town born  - South Africa's Kevin Anderson and eight-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer were embroiled in a classic quarter-final that  entered the fifth set - and passed the four hour mark. Federer took the opening two sets 6-2 and 7-6 (7/5) before Anderson rebounded to take sets 3 and 4, 7-5 and 6-4 to even the contest.

Final scores read :

            1          R. Federer      6          7(7)      5          4          11       

            8          K. Anderson  2          6(5)      7          6          13        

Top seed Federer, who was aiming for a record-equalling ninth singles title, missed a match point in the third set.  It proved pivotal as the South African recovered to win 2-6 6-7 (5-7) 7-5 6-4 13-11 in four hours and 13 minutes.  The 2017 US Open finalist will meet Canada's Milos Raonic or American John Isner in his first SW19 semi-final. Federer’s defeat was his first from two sets up since 2011, when he was beaten by Novak Djokovic in the US Open semi-final. Three months before that he had gone down in five sets to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at Wimbledon.

Eight-time champion Federer has already won more Wimbledon singles titles than any other man, but was aiming to equal Martina Navratilova's all-time record.  The Swiss, who turns 37 next month, had been utterly dominant on his way to the last eight, swatting off Dusan Lajovic, Lukas Lacko, Jan-Lennard Struff and Adrian Mannarino in a combined total of little more than six hours on court.  But Anderson, playing in his first Wimbledon quarter-final, finally made the 20-time Grand Slam champion look human.

The 32-year-old became the first opponent to win a service game, and then a set, against Federer at this year's Championships. All good things do come to an end !! -  of his many coaches,  Severin Luthi  played a key role in the Roger Federer's career. The Swiss player hired Luthi back in 2008, and since then he often praised the work they have done together. At the end of 2015, when Stefan Edberg decided to leave the team, Federer asked Luthi to become his main and one coach.  The 41-year-old didn't accept the request as he works as Swiss Davis Cup team captain and cannot guarantee a 365-day (or so) availability a year.   

The other successful coach is  Ivan Ljubicic,  a Croatian former World No. 3.   He played the Swiss 16 times in his 14-year career, before retiring in 2012. Ljubicic won just three times. The two also spent many hours practicing together when they were both competing.  Federer had praised Ljubicic in the past, calling him a “natural leader,” and “very bright.” Ljubicic is no stranger to top-level coaching, he previously worked with Canada’s Milos Raonic. The highlight during his time with Raonic was a semifinals appearance at Wimbledon in 2014 before he lost to Federer. Raonic talked of Ljubicic’s “tremendous amount of support, knowledge and understanding,” when the two split in November 2015.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

11^th July 2018.