Roger Federer hints at waning love for the sport

It’s not often when the owner of an unprecedented haul of seventeen grand slams is required to swat away niggling questions of form, fitness and the dreaded r-word and then come up with a consummate spin on his recent tailspin.

But, the media, who have mastered the game of instant pontifications, have gone out on a maniacal chase of Roger Federer with an insidious intention to make tennis a living phantom for him.

And this is something that the Swiss has finally admitted to in an interview with CNN, where he implied that his “fun (for the game) goes away sometimes” amidst the humdrum of high expectations that have been tattooed to him by the media and fans alike.

Federer, who failed to reach a grand slam final this year for the first time in over a decade, briefly alluded to his waning love for the game.

He said: “Like losing in the quarterfinals … now is (seen as) a disaster. It changes the mindset of you as a player and as a professional athlete and that’s where I always try to remember, ‘Well, as long as I enjoy what I’m doing, I train hard, I have no regrets.

“The fun goes away sometimes because instead of it being a lifelong dream you’ve had to just enjoy yourself and play tennis like your heroes used to, now people sort of expect you to win.”

Amid the gloom-evangelism perpetrated in the tennis circles, Federer insisted that he still had the drive to compete at the highest level, and the recent sacking of his coach Paul Annacone suggests that the 32-year-old is still looking to hone his game to adept to the fresh challenges provided by the likes of Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

He also suggested that he was comfortable in his skin while out on a tennis court because he knows what he has achieved in the game. He felt at ease as nobody could snatch away those achievements off from him.

He said: “You just have to prove yourself every single day and everything that comes is like a bonus. I’ve been on this bonus trip for a long, long time and playing this way has actually been much more enjoyable.

“That’s (the titles) sort of in the vault, good to have and good to know.”