Federer feels the pain but has ‘no plans to retire’
Injured Roger Federer thought he had a three per cent chance of beating Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open semifinal. But he took those odds and played, unsuccessfully, like he had nothing to lose.
He contemplated withdrawing before the match due to injury but felt he would give himself a chance.
‘‘Today was horrible, to go through what I did. Nice entrance, nice send-off, and in between is one to forget [when] you know you have a three per cent chance to win. You know, got to go for it. You never know. But once you can see it coming, that it’s not going to work any more, it’s tough,’’ he said.
‘‘[A three per cent chance of winning] was better that than zero, I tell you that.’’
It also meant he played with abandon in a first set that he should have won after going to a 4-1 lead with three more break points to go 5-1 up before eventually losing the set in a tiebreak.
‘‘I don’t think I would have gone on court if I felt like I had no chance to win. We saw I was still being able to make a match out of it. Who knows maybe how he feels as well,’’ Federer said.
He praised Djokovic for rallying from behind to win the first set and the match.
‘‘I’m sure maybe he was feeling a little bit uncomfortable in the beginning, but he was able to find a way there,’’ Federer said.
There had been strong doubt on Thursday afternoon whether Federer would be fit to play and might have to forfeit his first grand slam match after sustaining an injury during his quarterfinal against American Tennys Sandgren on Tuesday.
‘‘I went for a scan that same night, was all right. After that, well, we didn’t push it. I didn’t practise. I took a day off the next day,’’ he said.
‘‘I did believe there was something that could be done today, and also must have felt like at least it was probably not going to get worse. If it did, this would have been my first retirement today.
‘‘We did talk about it with the team, how bad is it allowed to feel and all that stuff. But it never went there, so that’s good. But you’re playing careful, obviously.’’
He also declared that despite the injury halting his wearying 38-year-old body he had no plans to retire and intended to be back at the Australian Open in 2021.
‘‘You never know what the future holds. But especially my age, you don’t know. I’m confident. I’m happy how I’m feeling, to be honest. I got through a good, nice training block. No plans to retire,’’ he said.
‘‘From that standpoint, we’ll see how the year goes, how everything is with the family. We’ll go from there. Of course, I hope to be back.’’
Federer said that he could not have asked for more of himself in the tournament after his fighting win over Australian John Millman and the come-fromthe-dead victory over Sandgren.
In the final, Djokovic will play the winner of last night’s semifinal between Dominic Thiem and Alexander Zverev.