Roger Federer admitted he was “scared and uncomfortable” during the 2009 French Open finals when a fan raced past the security and almost got to him
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(L) Roger Federer - IMAGO / Paul Zimmer, (R) Federer being approached by the intruder as security races to catch him - IMAGO/PanaromiC
Roger Federer, the 20-time Grand Slam champion was unlucky in a sense to retire with only 1 French Open title. His sole victory in Paris came at the 2009 French Open when he defeated Robin Soderling. Soderling’s win over the 4-time defending champion Rafael Nadal presented Federer with a golden opportunity to capture the Roland Garros title.
As Federer and Soderling started the finals, the Swiss maestro drew the first blood racing to a 6-1 win in the first set. In the second set, with Soderling serving being 1-2 down, a security breach took place on the Philippe Chatrier as a fan made his way to the court.
“I didn’t know exactly what happened. All of a sudden I heard the crowd and I looked over and he jumped over the fence or something. That gave me a fright, just like seeing him so close right away,” said Federer about the incident as the fan tried to give Federer a hat before being taken down by the security personnel on the court.
The incident had Roger Federer shaken as he was dragged to a tiebreaker
The fan was wearing a red shirt with green pants and was waving a flag of his own. As he made his way closer to Federer, he tried to put a hat on the then World No. 2 but couldn’t successfully do so. Although he was surrounded by security, he managed to make a small escape but was shortly brought under control after he made a jump over the net.
“The good thing is like it happened before, so that’s why I guess I didn’t panic. It happened in Wimbledon before when two guys ran out on the court; and once I think it was in Montreal when I lost to [Andy] Roddick when I was playing for my No1 ranking in the third set.
“This guy, I don’t know, he looked at me and I was not sure what he wanted. It seemed like he wanted to give me something. So I was actually OK because I saw he wasn’t pulling for anything stupid. It definitely felt uncomfortable once he came close to me.
“Looking back, it definitely threw me out of my rhythm a little bit. One game later I thought that maybe I should have sat down and taken a minute or two to kind of reflect on what just happened,” said Federer about the whole incident after he won the title in straight-sets.
Federer however is the only Big-3 member to not have completed the Career Slam twice. While both Nadal and Novak Djokovic have won at least two titles at all majors, Federer has only one French Open title to his name and Nadal is the one to have caused the maximum damage.
Prior to the 2009 French Open, Federer reached the finals in 2006, 2007 and 2008 but lost to Nadal on all three occasions. Federer reached the finals once again in 2011 but was again taken down by the Spaniard who won his 6th title in Paris that year matching Bjorn Borg‘s tally.
Soderling had also presented his thoughts on the matter showing his disappointment in the security arrangement. He called the entire fiasco of 18-seconds a “bad thing” and expressed that even the security was left surprised by the incident.
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Sarthak Shitole
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