Roger Federer was fined twice for dropping the F-bomb on Andy Murray in a heated semi-final match at the 2013 Australian Open
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Andy Murray and Roger Federer
Roger Federer has been known for his calm demeanor on the court. As a kid, he was however brash and aggressive but he got a grip on his emotions over the years to remain calm. Federer having a meltdown eventually became a Halley’s Comet, rare but used to occur nevertheless. As he was no saint, he did lose his cool on a few occasions.
One such occasion was during the 2013 season. The victim of Federer’s anger was Andy Murray. Murray, along with Novak Djokovic ,had managed to elevate themselves to Federer and Rafael Nadal‘s tier as the Big-4 came into existence. The quartet hardly gave up the big titles to other Tour players as they combined to win 66 Grand Slam titles at the end of the 2022 season.
Both Federer and Murray had managed to reach the semi-finals of the 2013 Australian Open. The Briton was the third seed at the Grand Slam while the Swiss was seeded second. Murray got the better of Jeremy Chardy in straight-sets in the quarter-finals. Federer had to fight a five-set battle against seventh 7th-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, dropping sets for the first time that year in the Major.
As Murray looked to close the match in the fourth set, tension was rising. With Murray serving at 6-5, a slight pause during the point and an eventual passing shot by the Briton got Federer annoyed. Approaching the net, he abused Murray, which was caught on camera. Federer then managed to break his serve before dominating the tiebreaker to force the deciding set.
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Neither Roger Federer nor Andy Murray held on to the verbal exchange
Andy Murray did not make things easier for himself after the first outburst of Roger Federer. Both occasions of Federer using abusive language occurred in the fourth set. The two did not confront each other but the tension could have been cut with a knife. Eventually, it was Murray’s night as he won the fifth set 6-2 to advance to the final.
Novak Djokovic was awaiting the Briton in the finals and won it in four sets to clinch a hat-trick of titles at the Australian Open. As for Murray and Federer, it was all smiles at the end. Both men did not hold any grudges and cleared the air at the press conference before any manipulation could take place.
“I wasn’t that surprised. Stuff like that happens daily in tennis matches. It was very, very mild in comparison to what happens in other sports. People will want to make a big deal of it, and it isn’t really a big deal,” told Murray to the press after his qualification to the finals.
Federer downplayed the incident calling it ‘not a big deal’. “It wasn’t a big deal. We just looked at each other one time. That’s OK, I think, in a three-and-a-half-hour match. We were just checking each other out for [a] bit. No, I mean, that wasn’t a big deal for me. I hope not for him,” concluded the Swiss maestro.
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Sarthak Shitole
(3462 Articles Published)