A sleepless night and foreboding feeling hit Roger Federer before the Australian Open final.
Even Grand Slam champions get tight.
Watch: Federer Tops Cilic
In the aftermath of his five-set conquest of Marin Cilic that clinched his 20th career major title, Federer said he suffered a major case of the jitters before the final.
"I was so bloody nervous all day," Federer said. "It was eating me up inside. That's why, when it was all over, I was just so relieved, to be quite honest. I think it was more of a relief walk at that point."
The 36-year-old Swiss had a premonition he would fall in the final.
"You can't explain it sometimes," Federer said. "It is just a feeling you get. It's like against Berdych, I felt, like, I'm probably going to lose this one. I was not negative, but I just felt like I saw a loss was coming somehow. Not because I was not feel good or anything, I just felt like maybe Berdych is really feeling it.
"Today for the finals, I didn't fall asleep very well after the Chung match. I think it surprised me that at this stage of a competition in semis, to get a walkover, that was very odd for me. I couldn't fall asleep until about 3 in the morning. All of the next day I was already thinking about how should I play Marin, how cool would it be to win 20, but no, don't think of it, but how horrible would it be to lose it. I had it for over 36 hours, to be honest. It was a lot."
Photo credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve