Tipsarevic Pays Tribute To Federer

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 7th November 2012

Tipsarevic Pays Tribute To Federer

epa03460132 Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic returns the ball to Roger Federer of Switzerland during their match at the ATP World Tour tennis finals in London, Britain, 06 November 2012. EPA/ANDY RAIN |

Beaten opponent Janko Tipsarevic has paid tribute to the unrivalled tennis of Roger Federer after losing to the Swiss in an opening match at the World Tour Finals. Tipsarevic, the world No. 9 who came to the match after suffering in recent days with illness, made no excuses for his defeat by the best to ever play the game.

And he stressed that it was talent and not luck that has had everything to do with the Federer run of form which has lasted the better part of a decade.

“I think Roger Federer is everything but lucky,” said the Serb. “People see him play this flawless tennis and saying, ‘Oh, life is so easy for Roger, he’s so talented.’ He is talented, but there’s so much work behind that. The fact that he was born with that magic hand of his is a plus.”

Tipsarevic did not mince words when expressing his admiration for the 17-time Grand Slam winner who is bidding for a seventh year-end title after setting a new record of 40 victories at year-end events.

“Roger Federer is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, professionals that this sport has ever had. Throughout his career, he was always putting tennis as the No. 1 thing in his life, never doing anything to damage his professional tennis career.

“Because of that, and because of the professionalism that he has and the time that he devoted to this game, this is the reason why he has such high durability and was almost never injured in his career.

“This is my take on that. It has nothing to do with luck.”