Roar Guru
It was the 2011 Australian Open press conference after the semi-final in which Novak Djokovic had defeated Roger Federer in straight sets.
During the press conference a reporter mentioned that commentator Todd Woodbridge had said that with Rafael Nadal injured and Federer knocked out it was “the passing of the torch” to Djokovic.
What was Federer’s reply? “They say that very quickly, you know, so… let’s talk in six months again.”
It was a quote hard to forget because it was the first that Federer had stepped outside his normal high levels of humility. For someone who was then a 16-time Grand Slam winner, he had always presented himself as a very humble person. It seemed completely out of character, but nonetheless it was exactly what he said.
So let’s talk again… going ahead six months.
Federer was beaten in the French Open final by the undisputed king of clay, Nadal. Nothing to be ashamed of here. However, in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon he led Jo-Wilfried Tsonga two sets to love before losing. Djokovic won the tournament, so Federer’s quote already was not looking so good.
Let’s go forward 12 months now. Federer is beaten by Nadal in the 2012 Australian Open semi-final, a tournament Djokovic wins again.
Now, let’s finally move forward to the present day, almost five years later. Since the 2011 Austrlaian Open, there have been 19 Grand Slams played. Federer has only won one of them. Djokovic, on the other hand, has won eight out of those 19.
So to quote Federer “lets talk in six months…”. Six months from that quote wasn’t good for Federer. 12 months later it was a little worse. Five years later it could be argued that it was the moment Federer lost his humility.