Roger Federer talking to reporters during the post match press conference on Thursday. (Getty Images)
World No.2 Roger Federer credits rival Novak Djokovic’s performance saying that he looked solid following his Australian Open semi-final loss to the latter on Thursday.
Federer was knocked out of the ongoing tournament by the third seed 7-6, 6-4, 6-3 in straight sets to advance into the finals.
The Swiss maestro was talking to the press after his loss when one of the reporters asked him if he felt that the Serbian’s game was getting any better.
In reply, the 38-year old Federer said that despite Djokovic having faced a lot of ups and downs in his career, has bounced back and looked good at the moment.
“Well I don’t know, I have played Novak on some days, obviously also when is very tough. I heard that he was hitting bigger on the second serve this tournament but that just takes guts to do that,” Federer opined.
“His first serve speed today, it’s hard for me, it’s tough measuring stick to be quite honest you know. But yes, I mean he has definitely had a bit of ups and downs throughout his career with his serve and right now it looks very good,” he continued.
“He did have problems with double fault at some point. He had an elbow issue and when he came back, he didn’t hit his spots very well and now he’s got them all back and it looked solid. So, yeah credit to him to get that done.”
Meanwhile, Federer’s wait for another Grand Slam title still continues with the last one having come in the same venue back in 2018.
Federer, who failed to grab any of the Majors last year, missed out on the opening Grand Slam of 2020.
After Wimbledon (8 titles), the Australian Open has been his favourite hunting ground winning 6 of them here out of his total 20 Grand Slams.
However, it was an improved display from Federer this year having exited the tournament in the fourth round last time around.
