World number two Roger Federer revealed that he was definitely disappointed with his performance at the Madrid Masters tournament, where he lost to Kei Nishikori of Japan in the third round 6-4, 1-6, 6-2. The Swiss superstar said that he will immediately go back to the practice court and regroup and hopefully bounce back from the disappointing exit.
“I’m going to go back to the practice court, train hard, and make sure I don’t have these kinds of days anymore,” Federer said.
“I was lacking control from the baseline, and that pretty much carried through from start to finish. I’m pretty disappointed with my play. I’m not sure how well Kei thought he played. I didn’t think he had to play his very best either, which is even more disappointing.
Federer is playing his first claycourt event of the 2013 season, having skipped Monte Carlo Masters.
“At least I’ll come out with some ideas of what I need to work on,” he said.
“Clearly the ball flies here and it’s faster, so that makes it sometimes trickier to find your rhythm. We’re so accustomed to always finding that rhythm eventually, so it’s even more disappointing if you never really find it, which was the case today.
The Swiss star credited his opponent.
“Credit to Kei. He got it done and was more solid in the wind. He played better than I did, so the better guy won today, that’s for sure.
“I feel like I want to go to the practice courts this afternoon, but clearly I’m not going to do that. I’m going to make sure I’m as well prepared as I can be for Rome. I’m excited for that, because clearly I have no choice but to hit the practice courts. And I like to do that, and I’ll do that well and hard,” said Federer.
Federer’s next tournament is the Internazionali BNL d’Italia or Rome Masters which begins next week.
