To understand how much Roger Federer would enjoy shattering Novak Djokovic’s grand slam dream on Friday, one must go back to last year’s US Open semi-finals.
Federer will play Djokovic for a French Open final berth at Roland Garros, desperate to thwart the Serb’s bold bid to become the first man in 43 years to hold all four majors.
Make no bones about it, there is no love lost between this pair.
Mutual respect, yes.
But Federer openly admitted after Djokovic saved four match points in his dramatic quarter-final win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Tuesday that he would love to have played the Frenchman in the semi-finals before Tsonga’s home crowd.
It was only a subtle jab at Djokovic, unlike when he publicly rued the Serb’s fluke forehand to save match point when the Swiss was serving at two sets all, 5-4 and 40-15 for a spot in the US Open final last September.
After Djokovic swatted a Hail Mary return for a winner – which John McEnroe labelled “one of the all-time great shots” – a shaken Federer crumbled.
He blew a second match point with an unforced error, dropped serve and was then broken again to ultimately lose the match – 6-7 (7-9) 4-6 6-3 6-2 7-5.
The Swiss master was unable to disguise his displeasure when asked if Djokovic’s match-turning forehand was “luck, risk or a function of confidence”.
“Confidence? Are you kidding me? I mean, please,” Federer said.
“Look, some players grow up and play like that.
“I remember losing junior matches – just being down 5-2 in the third and they all just start slapping shots. It all goes in for some reason because that’s the kind of way they grew up playing when they were down.
“I never played that way. I believe in hard work’s going to pay off … so, for me, this is very hard to understand how can you play a shot like that on match point.”
Having also blown two match points against Djokovic in the semi-finals a year earlier in New York, the recurring nightmare really hurt.
“It’s awkward having to explain this loss because I feel like I should be doing the other press conference,” Federer said.
“There’s no more I could do. (He) snaps one shot and then the whole thing changes.
“But it’s what it is. He came back – he played well. I didn’t play so well at the very end.
“Sure, it’s disappointing, but I have only myself to blame.”
But asked if he really had only himself to blame, Federer replied: “Maybe, I said.”
Rest assured, the loss still burns – and stopping Djokovic from completing a grand slam sweep that not even he could manage during his glorious career will be priority No.1 for Federer on Friday night.