In the build up to the Swiss Indoors in Basel swiss channel SRF Zwei conducted an interview with defending champion Roger Federer.
The 17-time Grand Slam champion will be bidding to claim his seventh title in Basel this week, becoming the first man in history to win seven titles in the tournament. The 34-year-old has played 65 main draw matches at the event since 1998, winning 56 of them. Federer has no chance of finishing the year at No.1 in the world as he trails Novak Djokovic by almost 9000 points. The Swiss is, however relaxed about this as he said that his focus is on the tournaments and not the ranking points.
“If it’s not about the number 1”. He said.
“It is important to accept that Djokovic is clearly the best player of the season. My focus is on the match itself. The tournament victory in Basel has the highest priority, not any world ranking points”. He added.
Recently the world No.3 suffered a shock defeat to Spain’s Albert Ramos-Vinolas in the second round of the Shanghai Rolex Masters. Following the defeat Federer travelled to Dubai for an emergency training block with his fitness trainer Pierre Paganini. He told SRF Zwei that he flew Paganini from Switzerland to Dubai to conduct a three-day training session to get him in better shape for the Swiss Indoors.
The importance of the Swiss tournament is unquestionable for Federer. Besides playing in his home country, the tournament is statistically one of the best in his career. The 34-year-old has featured in the final every year since 2006, winning six of them. He recently turned down a wild card invitation for the Vienna Open to focus on his Basel preperations. Despite his numerous wins at the tournament, he called his first match 17 years ago as his greatest memory in Basel.
“In 1998, I was playing play against Andre Agassi. Since it was a struggle for me, not a 0-6,0-6 loss however (smiles). After the match, I was totally happy. I did not know that you can be happy after a defeat. But I was just happy that I was able to keep up reasonably with Agassi”. Federer recounted.
Federer will kick-off his 2015 Swiss campaign against Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin. He has beaten Kukushkin twice before in 2011 (Wimbledon) and 2014 (Davis Cup).
Highlights of Roger Federer’s first round encounter against Andre Agassi in the 1998 Swiss Indoors Championship.
