Former Portuguese tennis player Frederico Gil says he really wanted to play against record 20-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer in the 2010 Estoril final.
In 2010, former world No. 62 Gil defeated Spain's Guillermo Garcia Lopez to make his maiden ATP final in front of his home fans in Estoril.
In the final awaiting Gil was another Spaniard Albert Montanes, who pulled off a major upset in the semifinal as he beat former world No. 1 Federer in straight sets.
Gil says playing against Federer an ATP final in front of his home fans would have something unbelievable and he was disappointed when the Swiss lost to Montanes.
"I remember Miguel Seabra telling me that right there in the court. I finished the match, I celebrated, they asked me for some words and he gave me the news right there. I even think I dropped a 'yeah', a 'yeah' or a 'come on' came out in the sense that for me playing against Montanes is much easier than playing against Federer. But on the other hand I wanted to play against Federer, I wanted to be in the Estoril Open final and play against Federer, that is what it was, even if I lost I could already say that it is incredible. I was happy to be an easier opponent, in the beginning, but for me the preferred final was to be against Federer," Gil exclusively told Racquetc.
A great and a difficult week at the same time for Frederico GilMaking the Estoril final was a dream for Gil and it wasn't easy.
"Maybe not the happiest (week of my career). But it was one of the happiest weeks, for sure. It was a difficult week at the same time, because in the quarter-finals, I don't know if you noticed or remember, but we all had food poisoning. It was very hard, I even remember that Frenchman, [Arnaud] Clement, lying on the couch in the players lounge because he couldn't move and I was also very ill," Gil said.
"On the day when I played with Rui Machado in the quarter-finals I had two hours of sleep, badly slept, and I was very nervous, because I felt I had the opportunity to reach the semi-finals, but I was very sick at night, with vomiting. My mother helped me a lot, I was very nervous and feeling 'now that I had a great opportunity to reach the semi-final, why did this happen to me?'."
Frederico Gil played his last tournament in 2017.
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