But in his next match against Dominic Thiem—currently playing some of the most impressive tennis of his career—Federer couldn’t convert his opportunities to close out the victory, losing two match points of his own.
As surprising a result as it might be for the player many consider the best to ever pick up a racquet, it’s not the first time that has happened to Federer.
It’s not even the first time that’s happened against Thiem in their head-to-head encounters—with the other occasion occurring on grass in Stuttgart in 2016.
Since his late-career renaissance in 2017, Federer has lost from match point up on four other occasions. Granted, closing out a win is difficult at any level, but for the man who’s made tennis look ridiculously easy at times, those results stand out.
In 2018, Federer dropped contests on two of the game’s biggest stages. At the first Masters event of the year in Indian Wells, Juan Martin del Potro denied the Swiss the opportunity to repeat as champion, fighting off three match points to take the title in a third-set tiebreak.
Perhaps more shocking than that, though, was Federer’s loss in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon to Kevin Anderson. Playing each other for the first time in nearly three years, Anderson saved one match point before prevailing in a 13-11 fifth set.
