Roger Federer won the 20th Grand Slam Title of his career, but apart from excellence of his craft, it was his speech that made his fans cry with him.
Having beaten Maric Cilic to 6-2, 6-7, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, Federer cradled his trophy with an equal, if not more, amount of love and adoration that he had displayed when he had won the first ever title.
However, it was his speech, laced with emotions, that truly struck a chord with the crowd. He finally revealed why his 20th win left him in tears.
According to Federer, multiple factors played into it. Firstly, it was a night match, and Roger said that, “when it’s at night, you think about the match all day. It’s tough.” Ideally he prefers daytime matches.
However, because the match was at night, he was constantly torn over the outcome. Especially during the third and fourth sets, where his thought process kept swinging between “What would I feel like if I won? What would it feel like if I lost?”
Well, he did win.
And the emotions that overflowed at the win had just as much to do with the actual match, as they had to do with the preparation – mental and physical, that went behind the game.
He also remarked on how his thoughts were all over the place, because he kept thinking to himself, “I’m so close, don’t mess this up”, and he knew that this is exactly how someone does mess up.
This in fact, was the very reason, why the win got to him in the end.
Roger Federer’s emotional speech made him appear a little human, when we have already thought of him as a God when it comes to the world of tennis.