Martina Hingis still backing Roger Federer despite ‘brutal’ defeat

Roger Federer suffered a heart-breaking defeat at Wimbledon in 2019 but Martina Hingis still believes the 38-year-old is among the major favourites.

Almost five months have passed, but you can be sure Roger Federer will still spend some time this offseason thinking about his gut-wrenching defeat to Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final.

In July, Djokovic triumphed 7-6 (7-5) 1-6 7-6 (7-4) 4-6 13-12 (7-3) as Wimbledon’s longest ever final finally ended after four hours and 57 minutes.

It took a deciding set tie-break to separate the two and Djokovic’s win only came after Federer had been unable to convert two championship points while serving at 8-7 ahead in the fifth.

The loss in a tennis classic meant Federer could not add to his record total of 20 Grand Slam titles, which Rafael Nadal (19) and Djokovic (16) are fast closing in on ahead of the 2020 season on the ATP Tour.

Federer is still hopeful his physical shape and decent form going into the new year will help him ensure his 2018 Australian Open success does not prove to be his last major.

And he has received backing this week from a great of the women’s game, Martina Hingis, who also represented Switzerland during her career.

Hingis, a five-time Grand Slam winner, did not hold back when talking about Federer’s July defeat to Djokovic, branding the circumstances “brutal” in quotes to Metro Sport.

"“He played so well those last three games until 40-15 up on serve,” said Hingis.“He hit three winners on his serve and the fourth one just didn’t come. Novak is just not going to go away, right? Maybe somebody else under pressure would miss that cross-court winner passing shot but he didn’t.“So I don’t know. Sometimes it’s just brutal. Tennis as a sport can be very mean and brutal.”"

However, Hingis still thinks Federer should be considered among the favourites at major tournaments, despite being a 38-year-old, and feels his recent win over Djokovic at the ATP Finals could prove a key mental breakthrough.

Martina Hingis said of Federer’s Wimbledon defeat:

"“He must still think about it sometimes, I would. Probably.“No, he’s had his revenge kind of now [at the ATP Finals], he still sort of knows he can maybe beat him. Sometimes that mentally helps. But I think he’s still one of the favourites, especially at Wimbledon I would say.“It’s amazing, the efficiency he has and the experience, he makes it so well that he knows his body and his routine. Tennis is just so important to him and he wants to break all these records. It’s amazing to see him play at that level still.”"

Hingis has it right on two counts, the first being that finding a way to beat Djokovic over five sets is a problem Federer needs to solve.

The ATP Finals win was a breakthrough, while the Wimbledon final proved he still has the game to mix it with his younger rival.

But that ATP Finals triumph in London was Federer’s first win over Djokovic in four years.

At majors, Federer has not beaten Djokovic since the Wimbledon semi-finals of 2012, a hump he will very likely have to get over to claim Grand Slam number 21, given the Serbian’s superb consistency and laser focus around peaking at the four majors.

Hingis is also correct about Wimbledon representing Federer’s best chance of doing adding another Slam to his collection.

An eight-time champion and 12-time finalist at All England Club, Roger Federer remains formidable on grass.

Since his first Wimbledon tournament win in 2003, only once has he failed to make at least the quarter-finals.

But Roger Federer will also have his sights set on Melbourne next month. He has six Australian Open crowns to his name, including two of the last three.