Federer Reviews His 2013 Season

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 5th December 2013

Federer Reviews His 2013 Season

epa03747488 Swiss tennis player Roger Federer reacts during the final match against Mikhail Youzhny from Russia at the ATPÂ tournament in Halle/Westphalia, Germany, 16 June 2013. EPA/OLIVERÂ KRATO |

Despite going 45-17 last season and dropping to sixth in the ATP rankings, Roger Federer wisely refuses to beat himself up over one of the poorest showings of his storied career. “No year is lost. In the circumstances, it was actually an interesting season,” said the Swiss in a chat with sponsor Credit Suisse. “It’s no joke being injured (spring and summer back problems). But I had to get through it, I had to question everything.”

Federer also revealed: “Along with the back problems, I had other setbacks of a kind I had seldom had in the previous ten years. But nonetheless it was an interesting experience – to see how different people reacted, and how I dealt with this situation myself. Sometimes, I could hardly move properly, and yet was sharply criticized by some people.”

Federer’s low moments included back pain in the spring which were not helped much by a seven-week break and more of the same in August when he made an ill-advised comeback despite continuing physical problems in hopes of winning some clay matches at home in Gstaad and in Hamburg. In between, he also lost in the Wimbledon second round to Sergciy Stakhovsky. He called the defeat “one of the biggest disappointments of my season.

“It would be better to forget the months from March to October, despite the quarter-finals at Roland Garros and the win in Halle. My back problems began at Indian Wells in March; after the match against Ivan Dodig, I shouldn’t have kept playing, the games against Stanislas Wawrinka and Rafael Nadal were too much.

“After that, I fell behind with my training and was unable to catch up again because my back problems soon returned. In the summer too, it would have been better to have given up in Hamburg and Gstaad. These problems cost me a lot of time and threw me off course.

“I went to Wimbledon convinced that I could win the tournament for the eighth time. But it wasn’t a complete surprise for me. Because I hadn’t played really well in Paris. Then Wimbledon was the start of the bigger problems.”

Federer avoided any post-season exhibitions to work exclusively on his game after a holiday. he is due to break new ground with a first appearance at the Brisbane ATP event starting December 29.

Topics: 10sballs, Atp, Indian Wells, Ivan Dodig, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Sergciy Stakhovsky, Sports, Stanislas Wawrinka, Tennis, Tennis News, Wimbledon