Roger Federer Can’t Remember The Last Time He Didn’t Have Support From The Crowd

If you watched the matches yesterday at the ATP Finals you may have noticed in the Roger Federer-Andy Murray semifinal that the crowd was almost evenly divided between two favorites. The surprising this is Murray is a Briton playing in London, yet at times it sounded like Roger had the greater cheering section.

After his 76, 62 win over Murray, Federer said he wasn’t surprised by the support he received from the British fans because he gets it everywhere.

“I always get a lot, but sometimes the opponent gets more,” Federer said, speaking about his passionate fan base. “It’s been a long, long time since I haven’t gotten any support. Let’s put it that way. I have always the opportunity to play on center court or on the second court at the big events, which is like a center court, too. It’s something definitely that makes playing well easier, to be quite honest. I guess because I’ve been in the game for so long, I do have many people who just enjoy watching me play or feel like it’s a throwback maybe to the back‑in‑the‑day times when they used to play with one‑handed backhands, and they like me because of those things.

“I don’t know what it is, but I do get a lot of support and do it appreciate it. I don’t remember the last time I didn’t get any support.”

Federer is a global brand and he is adored everywhere he plays. In Davis Cup, that could be different especially if he played a Rafael Nadal in Spain or Novak Djokovic in Serbia.

Murray agreed, “Almost all the times when you play Roger anywhere in the world, he gets great support everywhere. He deserves that because of everything that’s he’s achieved.”

Later today Federer will have the crowd in his pocket against when he faces Djokovic for the ATP Finals crown. Federer has won the event six times and he’s beaten the Serb in their two most recent meetings.

“For me, I think for both of us, it’s pretty straightforward,” Federer said. “I think we’ve got to press out the last juice that’s left in our body and make it a successful year end, even though it’s been successful for everybody who has been taking part in this tournament. But it is a big opportunity playing sort of the last match of the season, and facing off against Novak obviously is always special, especially here at the World Tour Finals.”