'Roger Federer's body has been amazing to...', says former star

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On the heels of his Citi Open Round of 16 victory, Grigor Dimitrov speaks. The Bulgarian tennis player, despite being nicknamed 'Baby Fed' not only because of his backhand, so similar to Roger Federer's, but also because of his style of play, does not want to jump to conclusions and even denies that he is comparable to the 'big 4 ': Nadal, Federer, Murray and Djokovic. "Each player is special in his own way, but those four players are in another league," the 31-year-old told Sport Skeda in an interview. It is a fact that Dimitrov never reached the heights that the tennis legends mentioned above reached. Dimitrov, for example, has never won a Slam, unlike Djokovic, Nadal and Federer, who are the most vying to win. Dimitrov said he was happy after his upset first-round win at the Citi Open, having had to retire early against Steve Johnson at Wimbledon with a thigh injury. Dimitrov, who beat France's Mannarino in the round of 16, will now face Sebastian Korda for a place in the quarter-finals. Despite the injury Dimitrov suffered at Wimbledon, 2022 was not a bad year sportingly speaking. He won 19 of his 32 matches and reached the semifinals of the Melbourne Open and the Monte Carlo Masters. The biggest trophy, and the last ATP title the former No. 3 won, was in 2017, when he won the Nitto ATP Finals. 2017 was the same year he won his only Masters 1000 of his own, in Cincinnati after, however, losing his first Slam semi-final to Rafa Nadal. The number 19 gave a philosophical answer to the journalist who asked him what prospects he saw for his career: "I will try to return to the TOP 10 to be able to continue playing with the best athletes in this sport".

King Roger doesn't give up

Former World No. 1 Andy Roddick is the latest to comment on Roger Federer's return. "He's aware of what he was coming back from after these previous knee surgeries," Roddick said. "He wasn't moving that well, he was a shadow of what we know as Roger. To add another knee surgery to that and to have him come back with that losy time, obviously, he knows it is going to be an uphill battle," he added. Andy Roddick went on to highlight Roger Federer's commitment to his fitness, pointing out that the Swiss has never retired from a match in his long career. "Let's also face the fact that the guy has reached 40, and his body has been amazing to this point," Roddick said. "And one other thing that needs to be mentioned, and it's one of the most amazing stats in sporting history, he has never retired from a match."

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/6ek17Bl

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