MELBOURNE—Roger Federer, who reached the fourth round of the Australian Open by besting Grigor Dimitrov, said that young players in today’s game have to be patient. It’s harder these days, the 17-time Grand Slam champion said, to reach the top quickly.
The 34-year-old said that when he was very young, he made plenty of mistakes. It wasn’t until he was 21 that he won his first major, capturing the 2003 Wimbledon title.
“You got to work hard,” Federer said. “Even harder now these days, it seems like. There's more professional tennis players than ever. The depth is greater. Talent takes you only so far. But the rest of it is you have to teach it to yourself and learn it, get it right. You got to be patient, as well. Can't expect to win Slams at 16, 17, 18 anymore these days [and] skyrocket through the rankings unless you're out of this world.
"I made a lot of mistakes. I wish I could have maybe been tougher when I was younger in practice, but I guess that's just how it needed to be. It needed to be genius or horrible. I needed to have that wide spectrum. I needed to make mistakes to become the player I am today. In a way I would do it again the same way, with just some minor adjustments along the way.”
Federer will face No. 15 David Goffin on Sunday.