Roger Federer talking to the media after his semifinal loss against Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open. (Getty Images)
Roger Federer claimed he had talked about retiring from the Australian Open semi-final match against Novak Djokovic due to injury on Thursday.
The former World No.1 had earlier sustained groin and lower back injury during his quarterfinal clash against Tennys Sandgren.
Despite the injury, Federer won the game, thereby setting up a clash with third seed Djokovic.
Federer was speaking to reporters following his exit from the tournament after a 7-6, 6-4, 6-3 straight-set loss at the hands of Novak Djokovic when he opened up about his thoughts before the game against the Serbian.
The Swiss maestro said that he had even thought and talked with his team about withdrawing from the tournament, however, stopped from doing so as he felt that he had a chance to win against Djokovic.
“Well, I thought I was going to make it, to be honest.
“I don’t think I would have gone on the 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?
“So, like I 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,” the Swiss explained.
“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 said.
Federer has never retired from a tennis match that he has so far played in his career. In his 21 years of professional experience, he has always started and finished a match that he has appeared in.
And that is a remarkable 1,511 matches for the 20-time Grand Slam winner, who is now 38.
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