On Eve Of “FedBerg”, Roger Federer Says He’ll Be Hungry To Win At The Australian Open
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Despite a tough loss to Lleyton Hewitt over the weekend in the Brisbane final, Roger Federer remains upbeat heading into the Australian Open.
“I’m very hungry and eager to attack,” Federer said.
“I think I can play very well. Depends on how I play more than anything right now. Just need to make sure I‑‑ I think I was able to sort of serve better overall, more consistent this week than I have in a long time. So that’s very good. And then as you move along, hopefully you’ll get more and more confidence. I definitely needed a little bit more confidence to play well and hopefully win the tournament and so forth.”
Federer is a 4-time Australian Open champion but has lost in the semifinals the last three years. This year, though, he’s made some changes.
Federer, who is using a larger racquet this year, will be joined in Melbourne by legendary player Stefan Edberg who will coach the Swiss for 10 weeks this season.
“He’ll arrive in a week’s time,” Federer said. “I don’t know what he’s going to say after this week or this match if he did see it or not. That’s for me to find out and give him call and speak about it. I already had a good conversation with Severin just now for a while, just how we’re going to go about it for the next week, what we need to work on, and how was this week overall, you know.
“Pretty pleased just that my body is holding up good in the first week, because you don’t quite know what to expect.So overall many good things, but then also a couple things you need to just readjust maybe, and also get to Melbourne and see what the court speed is down there and then you’ll have a real good idea of what you need to work on.”
Edberg will inherit a player who’s says he’s been practicing more than any of his rivals.
“I’m looking back now, last three, four months it’s been very positive going through Basel, Paris, and London, all three weeks in a row where I played a lot of matches, a lot of three‑setters as well,” Federer said. “Went through all of December. Probably practiced more than all the guys ranked you ahead of me because they were playing exhibitions and all that stuff. Then I did that for a full month, a lot of training there, and now here I had another busy week and I’m actually holding up very good.
So that’s a good sign moving into 2014.”
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