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Federer refuses to panic

Theo Ruizenaar | February 21, 2004 10:23 IST
Last Updated: February 21, 2004 10:23 IST


World number one Roger Federer refused to get too dejected after Tim Henman ended his 16-match winning streak at the World Indoor Tournament on Friday.

"I will think back a little bit about this match but I wouldn't dramatise it," Federer said after his 6-3, 7-6 quarter-final defeat by the Briton, who has now beaten the Swiss Wimbledon champion in six of their last seven matches.

"I have to change some small things in my game plan for future meetings because I know it must be possible to beat him," Federer said.

"Tim really played well and I couldn't play the way I like to do but that has also something to do with his game."

During the second set Federer missed several chances to take the match into a decider, especially since he lead the tiebreak 5-1 and wasted five set points.

"The missed chances in the tiebreak were not the most important ones," he said.

"In the tiebreak anything can happen but leading (the set) 4-2 and 30-0 brought me close to winning the set, and missing that opportunity made me very unhappy."

Federer, playing his first ATP event as world number one, said the match did not heap added pressure on him even though he knew he had such a poor record against the fifth seed.

"I only felt pressure every time he approached the net," the 22-year-old joked.


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