Roger Federer has hit out at claims that men’s tennis is undergoing a changing of the guard, saying constant speculation over his future is “annoying”.
Federer enters 2011 without having a major title to his name for the first time in 8 years after losing out to Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals of the Australian Open last month.
The next Grand Slam is the French Open, which gets underway in March. World number 1 Rafael Nadal has dominated the tournament, winning five times in the last six years. Federer succeeded in 2009, but will likely be 2nd favourite behind Nadal according to bigfreebet.
The Swiss star insists he is far from past it and was beaten by the better man on the day at the Australian Open.
“It was just one of those times where a lot of guys were playing well,” he said. “Just because one guy loses he is playing shocking and can’t play tennis anymore?” he commented.
“That’s where it gets a bit annoying in the press conference explaining something that doesn’t need any explanation. One guy throws a stupid question and unfortunately you have to answer it.”
The 16 time Grand Slam champion, speaking at the Dubai Duty Free Championship, also insisted he felt “at ease” about not currently holding a Grand Slam title.
He said: “It doesn’t stress me out.”
“I won the tour finals at the end of last year. Novak was too good at the Australian Open and I can only respect that, and work on my game and hope that’s enough.
“In any case this isn’t about the grand slams – my focus is on Dubai.” He added.
Federer moved safely through to the next round of the Dubai tournament after easing past Somdev Devvarman 6-3 6-3. He next faces Marcel Granollers of Spain who comfortably beat American-based Russian Dmitry Tursunov, a game which he is comfortably favourite for with big free bet.
