In an interview to Eurosport called “My Grand Slam Journey,” Roger Federer was shown some videos of his “Australian Open memories” and described each of them. The first one was from his third-round match against the French Arnaud Clement in 2000, which he lost 6-1 6-4 6-3.
Federer first thought it could be from his first ever Australian Open’s appearance but laughed realizing it was not. “It’s against Arnaud Clement. I think I lost to him back-to-back years here [in Australia].
I struggled against him early in my career, because he had a good transition game. He could defend and also play on the attack,” the Swiss said about Clement who, in fact, defeated him three of the first four times they had face each other.
The 38-year-old then confessed: “You know, I was a bit wild at that time… a fiery character and everything! That made it difficult for me to play against him. This was definitely new for me that year, even thought I had did play juniors in 1998, qualifying in 1999 and then my first time on the Tour in 2000”.
The 20-Grand Slam champion also shared which was his favorite memory from that Australian Open edition: “It was playing Michael Chang [in the first round]: that was a big moment for me”. It was their first ever clash, with Federer prevailing over the former World.
No. 2 6-4 6-4 7-6(5). The two met again in 2002 at both the Australian Open and US Open with the Basel native winning both matches in straight-sets.
Roger Federer opens up on his tiresome school experience
It would be hard to fantasize about the Swiss tennis legend Roger Federer being anything rather than an elegant tennis player, whom a number of tennis analysts had already ascribed as the best of all times or a G.O.A.T, nonetheless, in an interview with French language weekly magazine L’Illustré, the 38-year-old Swiss spesh with 20 major titles had opened up about his experiences in the school.
As a matter of fact, Roger Federer, who had to choose between being a tennis pro or a footballer at the age of twelve, shared almost the same experience as every school-going kid ought to deal with saying it was tiresome and sitting around the classroom was boring adding he practically tried really hard in the schools and the teachers were inspiring.
While being asked to share his experience as a kid in the school, Federer said in his interview with L’Illustré that published on Friday (February 21st), “Average, I would say. But, frankly, I always tried hard.
Sometimes I was tired of sitting around listening. The professor therefore had to use his best motivational advice to keep me posted. To tell the truth, yes, even if I was happy to get out and go play tennis. But I was lucky to always have good teachers. ”
