Roger Federer admitted he was struggling with the challenge of returning from double knee surgery after his Wimbledon preparations were thrown into disarray by a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 defeat to Felix Auger-Aliassime at the Halle Open.
Federer, a 10-time champion at the grass court event in Germany, lacked his customary fluency on serve and fell away dramatically in the final set as his focus and commitment waned against the 21st-ranked Canadian.
“It was not a good attitude from my side,” said Federer, 34. “I was disappointed in the way I was feeling on court, the way things were going … the whole difficulty of the comeback got to me as well a little bit, how much I have to push on every point, try to make things happen. I realised it was not going to be my day. There was nothing I could do, I started to get really negative, and this is not normally how I am.
“It’s a huge challenge for me. Everybody who’s been in multiple surgeries, or a tough surgery, knows what I’m talking about. Things don’t come simple, they don’t come easy. You second-guess yourself rather quickly unfortunately, and that’s sometimes the biggest worry: the worry of pain, or the worry of how you’re going to feel the next day, or when you wake up, the first steps, how did they feel? All this stuff, it takes a little bit of a toll on you sometimes.”
Federer was forced to fend off two early break points and, having broken in the seventh game with a pair of sumptuous passing shots, he again found himself 15-40 down as he served for the opening set. The Swiss recovered on both occasions, but showed further signs of vulnerability early in the second set. He was finally broken in the sixth game as Auger-Aliassime, 20, produced some explosive returns against his boyhood idol. The Canadian made another breakthrough at the beginning of the final set, and from that point Federer cut a frustrated figure as his game and concentration unravelled.
“I guess when I got down a break I got disappointed in myself that I was allowing the points to be played the way they were being played,” said Federer, who will be bidding for his ninth Wimbledon title when the tournament gets underway a week and a half from now.
“At the end things changed quickly. But it had a lot to do, I believe, with where I was at. I just think the consistency, of point for point, has not been easy for me in the comeback, and I knew that’s what it’s going to take. You’ve got to be very focused, committed and sharp, and I was not that any more in the third set.”
Federer’s exit follows the defeat of top seed Daniil Medvedev on Tuesday. The Russian lost 7-6 (8-6), 6-3 to Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff.
The British charge continued at Queen’s Club, where Cameron Norrie defeated fifth seed Aslan Karatsev 7-5, 6-2 to set up a quarter-final against his teenage compatriot Jack Draper, who won 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-0) against Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan. Draper, 19, who claimed the scalp of third seed Jannik Sinner in the previous round, becomes the youngest player to reach the last eight at an ATP event since Andy Murray in 2006.