"I could have played them better": Sandgren rues missed opportunites against Federer

Tennys Sandgren said he could have made better use of the opportunities he had to beat Federer during their quarterfinal final clash in the Australian Open.

Sandgren squandered seven match points against Roger Federer: Three while the score was 5-4 in the fourth round and another four in the tie break that followed.

“Obviously, he played the [match points] well,” said Sandgren. “I could have played them better. I've run through them a bunch of times. He was aggressive on one, passive on a few, came in on one, could have put the volley in a different spot.

“He read it well, hit two good passes. Put me in an awkward spot on the last one I had. Missed the approach. He probably would have passed me anyway. It was in a bad spot. All credit to him for sure.”

After having time to reflect on his performance, the current world no 100 talked about things he could have done differently in the match.

“Maybe [I should have gone] for a backhand cross-court full power. I probably had eight or nine that I played pretty good, but maybe I could have opened it up a little bit more. I was hitting my backhand well the whole day. Maybe I could have done more with that.

“In hindsight, played the volley to the open court. But I also didn't want to see a classic Roger Federer running forehand passing shot. So, I thought I would play it strong cross and he hit a great pass.”

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