Picture Credit: Twitter
Swiss tennis legend Roger Federer had a tough time in the first round of Wimbledon 2021 during his match against Adrian Mannarino. After four hard-fought sets, Federer eventually got a walkover as Mannarino was forced to retire due to an injury. Even after the match, Federer failed to comprehend an English idiom but such was the humility of the great man that he accepted that his English wasn’t good enough.
Notably, while the interviewer asked him about returning to the Wimbledon after COVID-19 pandemic had forced the organisers to cancel the event last year, he used a common British idiom “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” However, Federer apologised for his limited understanding of the language and did not make any pretentious speech.
Check out the video here:
The 20-time Grand Slam winner’s answer received a huge round of applause from the crowd. Later, when he was explained the meaning by the interviewer, Federer said, “Good reminder, my English is not very good. I think we’re all very happy, all the players, including all the fans and the organizers and everybody that we get a chance to be back on tour, especially here at Wimbledon. It would’ve been worst to have this tournament with no fans. This would have been an absolute killer, so it’s such a privilege to play here.”
Earlier, the 39-year-old great had admitted that it was his opponent who was the better player on the day but it was unfortunate that he couldn’t finish the match.