Roger Federer is not looking at his busy off-season as a reason for his third-round exit at the Australian Open. The world No. 2 fell to Andreas Seppi in four sets, saying it was "Just a bad day."
Federer explained that he "couldn't, you know, really get the whole game flowing," citing "things to do with Andreas' game and with my game as well. You put those things together, all of a sudden you're playing a match you don't want to play."
Federer led 4-1 in the second-set tiebreak and 3-1 in the fourth-set tiebreak, but could not get through Seppi's high level of consistency. "I guess I won the wrong points out there today," Federer said. "And I felt for some reason yesterday and this morning it was not going to be very simple today. Even in practice I still felt the same way. I was just hoping it was one of those feelings you sometimes have and it's totally not true and you just come out and you play a routine match."
Before the tournament, Federer said he had not really had a proper break coming into the season. However, he disagreed that his packed schedule, which included the Davis Cup final, one meeting of the International Tennis Premier League (ITPL), and a charity exhibition, contributed to his erratic performance.
"I was actually very happy that it was the way it went, because it allowed me to stay within the rhythm and take the break after the Australian Open. I was playing very well in practice. I was playing very well in Brisbane. I was playing great in the practice leading into the tournament. So I don't want to say that I peaked too early, but I definitely was hitting the ball very well," he said.
"I still believe I'd still be in the tournament, that I'd still have a chance to go very deep. Like I said at the very beginning of the tournament, I truly believe that. But then again, margins are small, and sometimes these things tend to happen. Clearly I'll have a look at it, but I don't think I did anything wrong honestly. I wanted to go to India. I wanted to go back to Switzerland for Christmas. I practiced as hard as I possibly could. Can't do more than that.
"Honestly I'm confident that what I did was the right thing."
Federer will not take some time off, returning at the Dubai ATP event.