Overwhelmed Federer says he would be back
10 Dec 2014 10:36 PM GMT
How much the Indian fans love Federer was in full display on the final day of the International Premier Tennis League on Monday when he played against his world number one rival Novak Djokovic in a one off set amid a roaring crowd rooting for his win. Citing lack of time, he had asked his Twitter followers to photoshop him around the country, drawing ‘hilarious’ suggestions. Most of his two days in Delhi were spent on court and hotel but it was enough to overwhelm him.
“The great moments I spent here will forever be in my memory. Thank you New Delhi! Tremendous crowd support! Forever grateful,” he posted in the wee hours of Tuesday before leaving India.
Around five hours before his parting tweet, he spoke at length about his India experience.
“Photoshop was so much fun. It was crazy reading it on the timeline. It was like ‘are you serious? I really enjoyed it (being in India). Unfortunately I could not do much of those trips (as suggested on Twitter) but I know I will definitely travel to India in a big way. I hope to get the company of some locals while I am travelling India. There is much to see. I want to come with family and hopefully we can do it in peace. I would really like to travel this beautiful country,” said Federer drawing a cheerful laughter from the media men.
Did he expect he is revered here? So much so that most at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium would support him over someone like a Djokovic. “Of course I did. I am in the Indian Aces team,” he quipped.
Then he said what makes him an adoring figure around the world. “My fans are the ones who support me the most. They know how much I appreciate their support. I don’t really scream about it all the time and they know it. But If they don’t know and they are insecure I didn’t appreciate, or I didn’t see the banner, I didn’t see the flags, didn’t see the t-shirt, I wanna tell them I did and I really loved it. And that is why I came here. I loved it. I can’t thank them enough. I hope to see some of them on the tour, those who will not be on the tour, hopefully will get to see them here or in some other Indian city,” said Federer, a record Grand Slams winner with 17 titles to his name.
He called IPTL an exhibition but it was serious stuff all the way against Djokovic. “I thought the match was great. We both played at a very good level. May be he struggled a little bit in the first one or two games. After that he was really good, really strong and I was happy with my level of play too.
We had great points. There was unbelievable excitement in the crowd. It could not have worked out any better.”
It is learnt Federer was paid a fortune for appearing just for the India leg of the competition. “Next question please. Let’s not talk money. It is boring,” was his reply when asked whether his appearance fee disturbed the overall event budget.
On a more serious note, he expressed his desire to play in India again but said he could not predict the future of the newly created IPTL. “I am the wrong guy to ask about the future. It is for the guys who crunch the numbers, whether it made financial sense. I am too curious to see how it was successful for them. I was only here for two days. Let’s see if I come back. 12 months are long time for me. I have four kids and and am 33 years old. I need to play an injury free season in 2015. I will consider it for sure but there needs to be a talk with family and people here. It will be tough say yes or no as I had such a great time here,” Federer said.
“The great moments I spent here will forever be in my memory. Thank you New Delhi! Tremendous crowd support! Forever grateful,” he posted in the wee hours of Tuesday before leaving India.
Around five hours before his parting tweet, he spoke at length about his India experience.
“Photoshop was so much fun. It was crazy reading it on the timeline. It was like ‘are you serious? I really enjoyed it (being in India). Unfortunately I could not do much of those trips (as suggested on Twitter) but I know I will definitely travel to India in a big way. I hope to get the company of some locals while I am travelling India. There is much to see. I want to come with family and hopefully we can do it in peace. I would really like to travel this beautiful country,” said Federer drawing a cheerful laughter from the media men.
Did he expect he is revered here? So much so that most at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium would support him over someone like a Djokovic. “Of course I did. I am in the Indian Aces team,” he quipped.
Then he said what makes him an adoring figure around the world. “My fans are the ones who support me the most. They know how much I appreciate their support. I don’t really scream about it all the time and they know it. But If they don’t know and they are insecure I didn’t appreciate, or I didn’t see the banner, I didn’t see the flags, didn’t see the t-shirt, I wanna tell them I did and I really loved it. And that is why I came here. I loved it. I can’t thank them enough. I hope to see some of them on the tour, those who will not be on the tour, hopefully will get to see them here or in some other Indian city,” said Federer, a record Grand Slams winner with 17 titles to his name.
He called IPTL an exhibition but it was serious stuff all the way against Djokovic. “I thought the match was great. We both played at a very good level. May be he struggled a little bit in the first one or two games. After that he was really good, really strong and I was happy with my level of play too.
We had great points. There was unbelievable excitement in the crowd. It could not have worked out any better.”
It is learnt Federer was paid a fortune for appearing just for the India leg of the competition. “Next question please. Let’s not talk money. It is boring,” was his reply when asked whether his appearance fee disturbed the overall event budget.
On a more serious note, he expressed his desire to play in India again but said he could not predict the future of the newly created IPTL. “I am the wrong guy to ask about the future. It is for the guys who crunch the numbers, whether it made financial sense. I am too curious to see how it was successful for them. I was only here for two days. Let’s see if I come back. 12 months are long time for me. I have four kids and and am 33 years old. I need to play an injury free season in 2015. I will consider it for sure but there needs to be a talk with family and people here. It will be tough say yes or no as I had such a great time here,” Federer said.
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