Roger Federer was two points from the third double-bagel of his career on Thursday at the World Tour Finals in London, when Andy Murray suddenly rallied to win three straight points to stave off what would have been a humiliating defeat.
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But unlike a no-hitter in baseball, where pitchers want to achieve the difficult-to-accomplish task at all costs, Federer was happy that he didn’t achieve the rare feat.
“At the end I was happy I didn't win the second to last game to be quite honest,” said Federer, “who ended up winning 6-0, 6-1. “Yeah, it's uncomfortable. I don't know. I don't like it.”
Federer, who broke the record for least games lost in round-robin play at the ATP Finals by losing only 13 games in three matches, saw his record shattered on Friday when Novak Djokovic blew out Tomas Berdych to finish his three matches with only nine games lost.
Federer has stated that the slower surface at London has played a role in the one-sided nature of the matches, because the court has not been kind to big servers.
"I think the surface here doesn't forgive much,” he said. “I think if there's a slight difference of the level from the baseline, hard to get out of it. We've seen it all week. The serve doesn't have that much impact.”
Still, when probed, the six-time ATP World Tour Finals champion said that the tournament has plenty of entertainment value despite featuring so many straight-set thrashings.
“I don't know if the people are disappointed or sad or whatever it is,” Federer told reporters on Thursday. “But I don't think they are. True tennis fans are not because they know it can happen. Can't make it best of five on the guys. It would be too tough… I think the tournament organizers try everything to make this an unbelievable place. I mean, the venue is fantastic. Still the fans are going to come.”
Aware of the negative press that the tournament has received, Federer was quick to ask that the journalists take it easy on the guys for the sake of the image of the event.
“I hope that you guys don't kill it, you know, because you guys have a bit of a say in this. Don't write negative about it because we've seen some good tennis. If you write too much about it, then we might see a reaction. But if you guys stay positive, it would be very helpful," he said with a smile.