New Delhi: Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer finished off the India leg of the International Premier Tennis League with a highly-anticipated meeting between the two stars in front of a frenzied New Delhi crowd on Monday.
The one-set match between the two rivals ended in a 6-6 stalemate under the format rules, which meant Djokovic’s UAE Royals team came away with a 29-22 win over Federer’s Indian Aces.
The exhibition-style tournament features five one-set matches between the two teams, with the overall score made up of the total number of games won by each side.
Earlier, Federer teamed with Gael Monfils to beat Djokovic and Nenad Zimonic in doubles.
Each team has both past and present stars from the men’s and women’s tours. Federer’s countless fans could not get enough of him on his rare Indian sojourn and the Swiss superstar reciprocated their feelings saying that one day he would travel the “beautiful country in a big way”.
“The great moments I spent here will forever be in my memory. Thank you New Delhi! Tremendous crowd support! Forever grateful,” he posted in the early hours of Tuesday before leaving India.
Around five hours before his parting tweet, he spoke at length about his India experience.
“Photoshop was so much fun. It was crazy reading it on the timeline. It was like ‘are you serious’? said Federer after his night match against Djokovic.
“I really enjoyed it [being in India]. Unfortunately I could not do much of those trips [as suggested on Twitter] but I know that one day I will definitely travel India in a big way. I hope to get the company of some locals while I am travelling India. There is much to see. I want to come with family and hopefully we can do it in peace. I would really like to travel this beautiful country,” said Federer drawing cheerful laughter from the media.
Did he expect to be so revered here? So much so that most people at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium would support him over someone like Djokovic.
“Of course I did. I am in the Indian aces team,” he quipped.
Then he said what makes him a figure who is adored around the world.
“My fans are the ones who support me the most. They know how much I appreciate their support. I don’t really scream about it all the time and they know it. But If they don’t know and they are insecure that I didn’t appreciate, or I didn’t see the banner, I didn’t see the flags, didn’t see the T-shirt, I wanna tell them I did and I really loved it. And that is why I came here. I loved it. I can’t thank them enough.”
