World number seven Roger Federer suffered yet another setback at the Shanghai Masters this week, losing to Gael Monfils of France in the third round but the Swiss star remains focused and will still compete hard to qualify for the ATP World Tour Finals, an elite eight-man event that he’s won six times. For the rarest time, Federer is struggling to qualify for the event following less than stellar results in the past few months.
“It’s been a more difficult season than other years,” said Federer. “This year it wasn’t just running from one tournament victory to the other. I had to digest a couple of tough losses, some injuries, so forth.
“But I’m still playing. I’m proud that I’ve never actually missed an entire part of the season,” he added.
Despite being seeded fifth in this event, Federer is still the one getting strong crowd support with practice sessions filled with avid fans with the hopes of catching a glimpse of the 17-time Grand Slam champion.
“It was great energy, I must say. It gives me unbelievable motivation, inspires me to train hard, work hard, push further for that particular day, but also wanting to come back again next year, and again and again.”
“I really appreciate the support I get, not just here in Shanghai, particularly here, but also around the world,” he said.
Federer has become more active in social media with the Swiss Maestro taking on to Twitter on Tuesday with “AskRF” session. Federer answered questions from fans from all over the world. He admitted that he had reservations of joining the world of social media.
“I just didn’t want to let the fans down if I did join that I was not going to live up to the expectations. I just don’t want them to expect me to do something every single day or every single week. It goes in phases, like moods, you’re not always in the mood for things.”
“[The Q&A] was really funny yesterday,” said Federer. “I really enjoyed it. I had so many tweets and questions coming in, it was really a lot of fun.”
He doesn’t have plans of slowing down in connecting with fans online.
“They don’t have to go search for you. I can kind of come to them on the Twitter level, and Facebook too. So far it’s been a lot of fun. I hope the fans also enjoy that they can connect with me on that platform.“
