Roger Federer: I’m Still Not 100% Over The Flu, But Feeling Better; I Was Impressed By Raonic

Roger Federer played some dazzling tennis handling the big-serving Milos Raonic in three sets last night at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells. Federer and his family, however, have been fighting a flu bug in the desert, but the Swiss said that’s he’s slowly feeling better.

“Slow improvements, I’m still not 100%,” Federer admitted. “So I’m happy that I did play the tournament and I got kind of what I hoped for. It was a good, sort of a good match with Kudla, you know. Gave myself a chance there and played actually really good under the circumstances. I was surprised with a day off and playing Raonic who I knew was going to keep the points short. It’s kind of what I was hoping for. Now I’m sort of in the tournament and actually feel a bit better.”

After the match with Raonic, Federer gave the Canadian’s serve high marks, saying someday it would be among the Top 10 best all-time.

“I can’t judge his serve on one particular match.” Federer said. “He first has to prove himself time and time again. He hit a ton of aces, I think the most aces of this season than anybody. But I’m sure it’s probably gonna be top 10 of all time at one point.
But, yeah, he’s still got some ways to go. Let’s don’t forget how many great servers we’ve seen in the game in the past.”

Overall, Federer was impressed with the game Raonic brought to the match.

“I thought obviously he’s got an amazing serve, you know that he can basically rely on at all times,” Federer said. “With that power and size, that’s something that will sort of never go away, and it will make him a threat for the years to come, clearly.

“I was impressed. He played great and made it hard for me by winning that first set tiebreaker. He kept himself in the match till the very end, and obviously put a lot of pressure on me.”

Federer will play Brazilian Tomaz Bellucci later this after at Indian Wells.