Wimbledon seed not a motivating factor for imperious Federer in Halle
Roger Federer says clinching the fourth seed at Wimbledon was not an extra motivation at the Gerry Weber Open.
The Swiss maestro arrived in Halle on the back of a disappointing first-round loss to fellow veteran Tommy Haas in Stuttgart, but was in imperious form this week and did not drop a set en route to a ninth title at the tournament.
Federer’s success was clinched with a 6-1 6-3 masterclass against Alexander Zverev on Sunday.
The 18-time grand slam champion had already earned the fourth seed at SW19 by beating Zverev’s brother Mischa earlier in the week, but he says that was not in his thinking.
“I don’t think that my seed of whether four or five has an influence on how successful I will be at Wimbledon,” he said.
“Both seedings would have had pros and cons. If you want to win Wimbledon you always have to beat the best players anyway.
“Some might think, okay you have to beat one big player less, but that doesn’t bother me. I have to have enough self-confidence that it is also possible to win at Wimbledon from seed five.
“And I didn’t even know before that I could reach the fourth seed.”
— Roger Federer (@rogerfederer) June 25, 2017
Federer, who won the Australian Open this year, skipped the entire clay-court season to prepare for Wimbledon.
And the 35-year-old plans to take a couple of days off before returning to the practice courts ahead of the third grand slam of the year.
“I’ll take a couple of days off and then start practising there again, see how conditions are over there, wait for the draw to come out, see what day I’m playing and then take it day by day, really,” he added.
“It’s pretty simple.”
