Victorious Federer Backs Murray Withdrawal
Locker Room
July 2, 2018
Roger Federer thrilled Centre Court and his four children as he achieved his first objective with a straight sets victory over Dusan Lajovic.
Now the reigning Wimbledon champion will hope for another win – for his beloved Switzerland against Sweden in the soccer World Cup.
No one would have bet on Switzerland staying in the tournament longer than his arch rival Rafael Nadal’s Spain – but that is the way it has turned out.
WISE
Rather than express too much glee, however, Federer took time to support Andy Murray’s eleventh-hour decision to withdraw from Wimbledon.
After his impressive 6-1, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Lajovic. Federer said this of Murray’s judgement call: ‘I think it is probably a wise decision. He would give everything to play here and that’s why it hurts.
‘If you’re just not feeling it in the morning, to walk out there and play best-of-five a few times in a row, what’s the point?
TOUGH
‘You’re only going to have a setback and then everybody’s even more unhappy. It must be a tough decision but one he is taking for his career and his life as well.’
Followers of this blog will know that we doubted Murray’s ability to get past the first match, let alone the first week, given his current physical condition.
Some of the hype tried to lead us to believe that Murray was a serious contender for Wimbledon.
POPULAR
But we warned that first-week tickets would probably provide the only chance to watch the popular Brit. Now, unfortunately, not even that it possible.
Happily though, there is so much more to entertain us at the Championships, and we saw that on day one.
Donna Vekic produced the first massive shock, beating the French Open finalist and US Open champion Sloane Stephens.
Score 6-1, 6-3.
STUNNING
And it looked as though Venus Williams might be another casualty after she lost a first set tie-break to Johanna Larsson.
But Venus stormed back with a stunning display to win 6-7, 6-2, 6-1, a sizzling cross-court backhand the ultimate clincher.