Roger Federer says his game is about confidence, but Thursday's match against Andy Murray was more about mercy.
Tennis.com reported that Federer did not want to defeat Murray 6-0, 6-0 in the pool-play match at the ATP World Tour Finals on Thursday. The No. 2 player whose chance at No. 1 ended when Novak Djovokic defeated Tomas Berdych on Friday, was up 6-0, 5-0 against Murray, who a year ago was threatening to break up the domination of the big triumvirate of Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael.
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Murray won the next game to avoid going game-less in a 6-0, 6-1 loss.
Asked about his reaction when he was just one game away from the double-bagel against a rival with whom he had evenly split the previous 22 matches, Federer responded, "Not so cool," tennis.com reported.
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"Because I wouldn't want to be in that position," Federer continued. "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."
Was it so uncomfortable that Federer allowed Murray to win that 12th game? Federer wasn't saying, and apparently nobody was asking.
A bad back forced Murray out of the 2013 U.S. Open and he's been struggling to get back to his 2013 Wimbledon form ever since.
Murray's struggles reminded Federer of his 2013, in which he suffered through injuries and fell to No. 8 in the rankings by season's end.
"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."
Federer said he is looking for a Federer-type bounce-back from Murray in 2015.
"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."
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