Roger Federer’s post-match press conference after his defeat by Berdych showed the champions state of mind and revealed some of Federer’s less flattering qualities. Often when Federer loses big matches he struggles to find compliments for his opponent but today he became a bit irritated in the press conference, found excuses for his losses (injuries he had previously denied) and came out looking a little bit like a sore loser.
Some of the highlights were:
“I’m unhappy with the way I’m playing. I couldn’t play the way I wanted to play. You know, I am struggling with a little bit of a back and a leg issue. That just doesn’t quite allow me to play the way I would like to play.
So it’s frustrating, to say the least. Looking forward to some rest anyway”
“Under 
the circumstances I think I played a decent match, you know. But I’ve been feeling bad for the last two, three matches now. It’s just not good and healthy to play under these kind of conditions, you know.
So if there’s anything good about this it’s I’m gonna get some rest, that’s for sure.”
“Quarters is a decent result. Obviously people think quarters is shocking, but people would die to play in quarterfinal stages of Grand Slam play. It’s not something I’m used to doing, losing in quarterfinals, because it’s not something I’ve done in the last six years.”
Q. When did you first start feeling the problems?
ROGER FEDERER: Well, the leg came in the finals of Halle. That kind of never really quite got away from me. Came back a little bit after the first‑round match, and then went away again and just kept creeping back sometimes during the matches.
The back’s been feeling stiff the last five days, six days really badly. Also in the finals of Halle. It’s just something that’s been lingering on the grass. It’s normal that the back tends to get stiff, you know, in the grass court season because you have to, uhm, go for many more lower shots.
I’ve had that for many years. I think many players have it. But it’s not just not nice when it doesn’t go away and you can’t play freely. That’s what I was missing today.
Q. A number of shots were sailing out and the crowd would groan and then they would suddenly curl in. What role do you think technology had on today’s result, strings in 
particular?
ROGER FEDERER: I don’t know what you mean. What do you mean, balls were flying out and they came back in?
Q. No. It looked like he was hitting balls that were going to land 10 feet behind the baseline and then they would curl in.
ROGER FEDERER: No, no, he didn’t play like that. You saw a different match.
Q. Andy Murray is playing a critical match at the moment. Nadal has been having some trouble. What do you think of Andy Murray as a player and do you think this might be his year, given some of the great players are not doing so well?
ROGER FEDERER: The end was what?
Q. I wonder if you think this might be his year, given some of the really threatening players haven’t been doing so well this year.
ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, I mean, true, Rafa played terribly lately; Soderling is not a threat either. He’s got an easy ride to this victory, that’s for sure. Djokovic can’t play tennis anymore it seems like.
Got to make your own work, please. Respect the players. Obviously Andy is a fantastic player and he’s got all the chances to win here. We all know that.
>Disappointed in Federer's Disappointment:As a big Federer fan, I'm disappointed that Federer lost so early at the Wimbledon – lost a chance to win his seventh Wimbledon tournament. However, I am a bit more disappointed in Federer’s press conference in which he never acknowledged that his opponent, Berdych, was a better player that day on the court, injury or not. I’ve seen Federer as much more a classier guy/player than that, and I still expect him to act as classy as he has been in the past since six or seven years’ since his dominance of the sport of tennis.Federer has already accomplished so much that no one would ever claim that Berdych is a better player than Federer, Berdych, himself, included. However, on that day, in that quarterfinal, Berdych certainly was a better player. It couldn’t have hurt Federer to encourage the youngster and to humbly admitting of his own subpar game and applauding Berdych’s game, without making any excuses per se that essentially undermined Berdych’s triumph over the tennis giant, Roger Federer that he is. Federer went as far as claiming that he was “unlucky” and “I gave the game away.” Certainly, there was no need for him to make such remarks. He has nothing left to prove – well, perhaps his classiness and gracefulness in defeat.Federer reacted in a similar arrogant fashion after his 6-4, 6-7, 7-6 defeat in the fourth round in Sony Erickson Open, in Miami this year, to none other than Berdych, when Federer said that he was a “bit confused” of his own game, and he later added, “my game has issues at the moment,” instead of applauding Berdych's better game. Perhaps, there is some bad blood between the two that we are not privy to, hence Federer’s refusal to applaud Berdych’s efforts in winning and solving the indomitable opponent (Federer), after losing eight straight matches against him. Not to mention last year’s incident when Federer broke his racket in frustration when he was losing to Djokovic at the same tournament in Miami – hmm? Is he going back to his younger self when he used to scream at himself, and throw tantrum and cried upon losing points, games, and matches? Granted he still cries, but mostly when he wins the Grand Slam event. He stopped losing his temper with the help of a sports psychologist.Upsetting Upsets in Tennis:Overall, I think it is also good for tennis that time to time these youngsters are upsetting the top-shelf players. However, my only problem is that these youngsters don’t finish the job. Take Soderling for example. He is doing the dirty work for the top two players for the last two years at the French Open. He took out Nadal, last year only to lose to Federer in straight sets.Federer must have thanked Soderling for eliminating Nadal later that night when he cuddled with the La Coupe des Mousquetaires trophy, while Mirka tended to their twins, in the next room.This year, again, at the French Open, Soderling defeated Federer, (or was it that Federer felt so indebted with gratitude to Soderling for being responsible for rounding out his grand slam set of trophies that Federer let him win to give him a chance at his own first Grand Slam title against Nadal
but Soderling lost to Nadal in the Final, yet again.Not to mention, Yen-Hsun Lu taking Rodick out in this year’s Wimbledon’s quarter finals, only to lose to Djokovic (6-3, 6-2, and 6-2) in the semis. I am most positive that Djokovic must have thanked Yu for not only taking out a tougher opponent that he might have faced in Rodick, but being such an underwhelming opponent himself.Granted, it is hard to beat an opponent you are supposed to lose to, let alone beat more than one of those favored opponents who happened to be the top two players of the sport.Gak
>I agree…. I think a lot of the time Federer say things that are actually quite arrogant and not at all fair to his opponent but no one really comments because of the way he says it.. he usually doesn't say it with any hostility/irritation in his voice so people miss it… Not today.I was unimpressed. One of the things I like about Nadal is he wont comment on injuries etc immediately after a loss because he doesn't want to take away from the other person's win.I don't doubt Federer is the best player we've ever seen but I dont believe he's the best champion we've ever seen. You have to be a good loser too and he's terrible at losing e.g. Aust Open 2009, and just yesterday against Berdych (and frequently at other points in his career)…. For this reason I reckon Rod Laver is the greatest!Fed needs to learn to be gracious in defeat.