{"id":50380,"date":"2025-07-31T16:03:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T16:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/50380\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T16:03:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T16:03:08","slug":"the-american-man-who-once-got-roger-federer-to-admit-he-was-lucky-and-didnt-deserve-to-beat-him-at-a-grand-slam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/50380\/","title":{"rendered":"The American man who once got Roger Federer to admit he was \u2018lucky\u2019 and \u2018didn\u2019t deserve\u2019 to beat him at a Grand Slam"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Roger Federer has, across a sparkling career, amassed countless iconic, heroic victories.<\/p>\n

After all, history will remember him as one of the greatest tennis players ever, who blazed a trail unlike anyone had done before and helped provide the foundation for stars like Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic to emerge too.<\/p>\n

Without one another, it\u2019s unlikely that all three of them would have soared to such unassailable heights, and for the legacy they have forged, they deserve limitless credit.<\/p>\n

And yet, across three long, timeless careers, there were bound to be a few lesser-remembered, perhaps even forgettable wins.<\/p>\n

\"TennysPhoto by Speed Media\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Roger Federer<\/a>, in particular, retired having played 1,526 matches on the ATP Tour, winning 1,251 of them; the most in both areas in the history of the men\u2019s sport.<\/p>\n

However, there seemed to be one outstanding match where he felt he was luckier than ever.<\/p>\n

The Grand Slam match Roger Federer admitted he was \u2018lucky\u2019 to win<\/p>\n

Speaking during his on-court interview after winning his quarter-final at the 2020 Australian Open<\/a>, Federer cut a downbeat figure, likely well aware of his level being below his usual standards.<\/p>\n

After all, he had been pushed to the brink by Tennys Sandgren, an American whose best-ever performance had come at this event in 2018.<\/p>\n

Having matched it by reaching this stage again, it seemed like the 36-year-old was on track to record the biggest win of his career. And, bringing up seven match points, Sandgren could not have been closer.<\/p>\n

Alas, he squandered those chances, and Federer turned it around and admitted after the match: \u201cGotta get lucky sometimes, I\u2019ll tell you that. Because, those seven match points, you\u2019re not under control.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might look that way, but\u2026 I don\u2019t know, I was just hoping that maybe he was not going to smash the winner, you know, on that one point, and he just keeps the ball in play. And if he does miss one or two, who knows what he\u2019s thinking about, but even that, I don\u2019t think really mattered. I think he played his match. I think I got incredibly lucky today. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then as the match went on, I started to feel better again, and, you know, all the pressure went away and I just tried to play. And again, got a little lucky to get the break and served really well. I think for most of the match at the end, especially. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo I don\u2019t deserve this one, but I\u2019m standing here and I\u2019m obviously very, very happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth comparing this with his Cincinnati run in 2015, which Federer described as his perfect tournament<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When was Roger Federer\u2019s final Grand Slam title?<\/p>\n

Federer, as the ageless figure that he remained throughout his career, went on to appear in another two Grand Slam events following that Australian Open at the start of 2020.<\/p>\n

However, his final major title had come years before that, given he was 38 years of age at the time of that \u2018lucky\u2019 win over Sandgren.<\/p>\n

\"RogerPhoto credit should read ASANKA BRENDON RATNAYAKE\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

It did come in Melbourne though, enjoying his final taste of Grand Slam success in 2018 with a win over Marin Cilic in the final.<\/p>\n

Federer\u2019s retirement then came in 2022, unsurprisingly selecting Wimbledon as the venue for his Grand Slam swan song before waving farewell at the Laver Cup, the very tournament that he created.<\/p>\n

A fitting goodbye to an iconic legend of the sport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roger Federer has, across a sparkling career, amassed countless iconic, heroic victories. After all, history will remember him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[12083,4037,99,428,38930],"class_list":{"0":"post-50380","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-australian-open","9":"tag-roger-federer","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-tennys-sandgren"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}