Roger Federer: 'Me and del Potro were both angry at umpire in Indian Wells'

In an interview to Barbara Schett and Mats Wilander on Eurosport, commented on his 2018 season and how the Indian Wells final loss to Juan Martin del Potro after wasting three match points may have influenced the rest of the year.

The Indian Wells final was one of the great matches for me last year, the crowd was really into, we were both angry at the umpire, there was everything and it could have gone either way for both of us earlier so in a way I was happy, I even had match points, he was happy that he got out of it, said Federer.

So at the end of the day, we could look back and be really happy. My problem was in Miami, I could have played better but I lost to Kokkinakis in a similar fashion, I had my chances and then I think maybe I paid a price because I lost a nail-biter already in Indian Wells so maybe Miami was because of Indian Wells.

And then after that I did not play for three months, so things were different, I reacted well, I won in Stuttgart, I played okay in Halle, I played the finals against Coric, two really good points and then I lost with match points again at Wimbledon so all of a sudden four, five months go by and you find yourself in Cincinnati and I played another final actually, I played okay but not really as good against Djokovic, but all of a sudden Wimbledon stays there as a major, major disappointment, which it was, but in my view I still kept on playing very well.

The margins were small last year. This year its important for me that when crunch times come around that I play better because I feel like the second part of the season maybe was not as good. ALSO READ: Djokovic would beat Roger Federer in Australian Open final – Evert