Roger Federer: I Was Playing For The People Watching On TV, Trying To Let Them Inspire Me

A set-all, down a break in the fourth and running on empty, 39-year-old Roger Federer had to battle back from the brink to beat Dominik Koepfer in four sets 7-6(5), 6-7(3), 7-6(4), 7-5 last night.

Because of the 9pm Paris curfew, Federer took the court in front of no fans for the first time in his career. Without his usual crowd support, the Swiss drew inspiration thinking about all his fans watching from home.

“Playing with no fans it’s something clearly hadn’t done in a long time thankfully,” Federer said following the 3 hour, 35 minute match. “I knew it was going to probably hit me at some point in my return, knowing that things are not over yet with the pandemic.

“I think it benefits the players like myself or other players that are very focused when they go practice nowadays, because I probably would have struggled a great deal when I was a teenager or a young player, because for me, practice was really not what I loved doing at all. I actually really disliked it, and for me it was all about the matches and atmosphere and playing for something, you know.

“So for me to go out tonight, sure, it wasn’t easy,” he said. “I’m happy I found a way.

“Also especially emotionally, how do you handle losing that second set, how do you handle to keep pushing yourself on and try to feed off the energy of the team and thinking of all the people watching on TV. I was really picturing a lot of people on a Saturday night maybe checking in on the game and watching some tennis, you know. So in many ways, I was also playing for them and trying to let that inspire me.”

Federer will likely be back in front of fans on Monday when he takes on Matteo Berrettini. Federer, though, left it open that he might not play.

“We analyze them highly and look on what’s next and will do the same tonight and tomorrow latest, because I need to decide if I keep on playing or not or is it not too much risk at this moment to keep on pushing or is this just a perfect way to just take a rest,” Federer said. “Because I don’t have the week in between here and Halle, like normal, to see, like, what’s best now if you count back from Wimbledon and so forth.”

Halle, which will also be fan-less, begins a week from tomorrow.

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