Roger Federer admitted his loss to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at Wimbledon had played on his mind at the O2 Arena on Sunday.
Swiss star admits Wimbledon loss to Tsonga played on his mind
Roger Federer admitted his remarkable loss to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at Wimbledon had played on his mind during his victory over the Frenchman at the ATP World Tour Finals.
At SW19 earlier in the year Tsonga rallied from two sets down to inflict a painful defeat on Federer and he threatened to produce another thrilling comeback win at the O2 Arena on Sunday.
However, Federer eventually prevailed in a tense third set to clinch a 6-2 2-6 6-4 victory and admitted afterwards he was delighted to have come through a tough test.
"It's very hard to get into any sort of rhythm against him from the baseline because he's a very good one-two puncher, which he proved over four and a half sets against me at Wimbledon," Federer stated.
Flashbacks
"Today I had flashes of that match because I didn't have much of a chance for a while on his serve. You just try your best."
The Swiss star, playing in the tournament for the tenth consecutive year, remained confident he would ride out the storm, though, and will next face the winner of the Rafael Nadal-Mardy Fish match.
"I thought I wasn't playing that poorly," continued the fourth seed. "I thought it was a good first set and even the second set was fine. The first break I kind of gave it to him a bit.
"But he did well to serve bigger and better as the match went on. Once he got the upper hand in the second set he started to swing more freely and got more dangerous.
"It was just a case of trying to stay calm, trying to wait for my chance, trying to create chances when he was not serving as well as he did at times.
"I was going to take those chances and hopefully come through with the victory, and it all came that way, exactly the way I hoped it to be."
Tsonga downbeat
Tsonga was disappointed that he again started slowly, and he said of his second-set efforts: "I just tried to put the ball in the court.
"In the first set, I didn't put one ball in the court. Then I started playing better. I think he was a bit surprised because I played so bad in the first set."
The Frenchman bemoaned his luck on the final point when Federer's mis-hit return dropped very short, forcing him into a weak reply.
"I just missed one volley," he said of the start of the crucial game. "Then on the match point, he returned with the frame. It is tennis. Sometimes it can go really quick."
