Federer: “I never thought I’d be able to win”

Roger Federer has confessed that he “never thought” he was going to win the Australian Open. The world No.10, who beat Rafael Nadal in an epic final, spoke to Time Magazine just three days after his Melbourne victory.

“I was able to show, especially after the tough year I had last year, how to make the right decisions,” Federer said. “How to move on and right away to create this sort of fairy tale story at the beginning of this year.

“This one has a very special, different taste than all the other Grand Slams I ever won. Coming back, getting older, and people have written me off maybe, makes this one so unique.”

In a wide ranging interview, Federer discussed the match against Nadal in detail, before discussing his mental strength on court.

“Early on in my career, I was quite unstable. If people were going into a match with me, they knew if you could hang with me for two hours, after two hours, you’d probably be the favorite.

“I wanted to create a kind of aura that if people played against me, I was not going anywhere mentally and physically. That took me years to build up. Only when I started to win consecutive Grand Slams, and I was able to show that tenacity week in and week out, that’s when I felt like the locker room was actually starting to respect me.

“My mental toughness has always been overshadowed by my virtuosity, my shot-making, my technique, my grace… Just because I don’t sweat like crazy and I don’t grunt, I don’t have this face on when I hit the shot like I’m in pain, doesn’t mean I’m not trying hard. It’s just how I play.”
Read the full interview at time.com.