Roger Federer says he was not keen to shut out Andy Murray in their round-robin match at the ATP World Tour Finals, in which Federer dropped just one game.
“Not so cool,” he said, when asked about his reaction to finding himself up 6-0, 5-0. “Because I wouldn't want to be in that position. I was happy to get it done. At the end I was happy I didn't win the second to last game to be quite honest.
“Yeah, it's uncomfortable. I don't know. I don't like it.”
Federer has never defeated one of his biggest rivals with such a scoreline, but was able to dominate from the beginning and said Murray was not at his best.
“I had the upper hand from the baseline, which hasn't always happened against him. But I definitely was able to play on my terms. For me, things went very well. I was able to put Andy under pressure very often,” he said.
However, Federer sees Murray bouncing back from a sub-par season following back surgery. A year ago, Federer was the one looking to come back from back problems, and described his own experience returning to tour.
“But if I can compare just slightly to me, because I guess we've had some similar issues in the last couple of years,” said Federer. “You just tend to be up and down, especially against the top players. There's just that little bit of doubt maybe that you need to play unbelievably well and the other guy you hope he doesn't play his best. Only then maybe you can get it done.
“Maybe he has those kind of confidence issues. I went through exactly the same last year. It's like an up-and-down battle. Every point is complicated. Every day is complicated. At the same time you do have your good days, you have your okay days. But they're not so often.
“So I think the off-season is going to be big for Andy. I'm confident for him that next year he's going to be much more solid throughout, he's going to be happier in the process, and he's going to be playing better tennis.”