Roger Federer accidentally hit himself in the face, lashed a ball into the crowd because he was losing, then turned up 'angry' to the post-match press conference
- Roger Federer lost his cool and then the match at the ATP Tour Finals on Sunday.
- Federer put the wrong foot forward from the off, when he accidentally hit himself in the face with a ball in the opening set of his loss to Kei Nishikori.
- Federer then refused to engage with the chair umpire and turned up "angry" to the post match press conference.
Roger Federer accidentally hit himself in the face with a tennis ball, lost a match, and then turned up "angry" to the post-match press conference at the ATP Tour finals in London on Sunday.
The 37-year-old is on the prowl for a 100th ATP Tour title, but his hopes of hitting that milestone took a knock at the weekend when he was upset in straight sets by Kei Nishikori.
Things were perhaps never destined to go Federer's way, because the veteran tennis player scuffed a shot intended for his opponent by hitting it into the scruff of his own neck instead.
Watch the weird return below:
That opening set faux pas was one of Federer's many mistakes as his serve was wayward, he missed straight-forward ground strokes, and made 34 unforced errors en route to his 7-6(4) 6-3 loss to Nishikori.
At one point, he refused to engage with the chair umpire Damien Steiner because of confusion over a challenge.
Federer also received a code violation from Steiner when he lashed a tennis ball into the crowd at the 02 Arena in London after losing a point.
"He thought I was angry. I wasn't," Federer later said at the post match press conference, according to the New York Times. "Now I'm angry because I lost."
According to the Metro, he also said he could not understand Steiner's decision. "Yeah, I was, just because I thought what was his argument, you know, why the warning."
Federer won the 99th trophy of a record-breaking career when he scooped the Swiss Indoors title in Basel last month.
He competed in the Paris Masters soon after and beat Milos Raonic, Fabio Fognini, and Nishikori to set up an incredible semifinal against Novak Djokovic, whom he narrowly lost to in one of the best tennis matches you'll see all year.
He plays Dominic Thiem in the second round robin match of the ATP Tour finals on Tuesday evening (local time).