Russian, former world number eight Mikhail Yuzhny called the Swiss Roger Federer his most difficult opponent.
Youzhny played 17 matches against Federer and failed to achieve a single victory.
— Rafa (Rafael Nadal) and Novak (Djokovic) were younger than me, so at the beginning it was a little easier for me to play with them. The first matches were very close. Over time, they improved significantly and it became more difficult to play with them. But for me – and not just for me, but for thousands of players – it was really difficult to play against Roger Federer. We played several times on grass… To be honest, out of the 17 matches, I maybe had the opportunity to beat him twice. It’s simple, we played the same style of tennis, but he did everything better than me: his serve was better, my drop shot didn’t work against him.
Maybe only our setbacks were equal, but I didn’t have an advantage anywhere. It was very difficult for me to find the path to victory from a tactical point of view. It was also easier to play mentally with Rafa and Novak, because I had beaten them in the past. With Roger, it was more and more difficult with each match. I started putting more pressure on myself because I really wanted to beat him. Even before the start, it was not an ordinary match for me, so the emotions reduced my chances of winning. For his part, he didn’t want to lose to a guy he had beaten tons of times before,” Yuzhny was quoted as saying by Tennis Majors.
In September 2022, Federer announced his retirement from sports. He has won 20 Grand Slam titles, a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in doubles and a silver medal at the 2012 London Games in singles.
Tennis majors
Source : MatchTV
I’m Rose Brown , a journalist and writer with over 10 years of experience in the news industry. I specialize in covering tennis-related news for Athletistic, a leading sports media website. My writing is highly regarded for its quick turnaround and accuracy, as well as my ability to tell compelling stories about the sport.
