Roger Federer could not hold back the tears as he lifted his 20th tennis grand slam title.
The world No. 2 broke down in tears during his champion’s speech after beating Marin Cilic to win the Australian Open in a five-set thriller on the Rod Laver Arena – a win that saw him match Novak Djokovic and Roy Emerson’s six-title hauls at Melbourne Park.
And he admitted it has never got any easier to control his emotions when winning a Grand Slam title, after beating Cilic in a 6-2 6-7 6-3 4-6 6-1 victory.
"I didn’t see that through my thick tears, that he [Rod Laver] was taking a picture of me crying,’ he said after the match. "I don’t know what to tell you. I was trying to explain it to the news channels.
"I think what happened is I got to the finals very quickly. The semis was cut short. I had a lot of emotions left in me because I didn’t have to go to extreme like last year against Nishikori, Stan, so forth.
"I think when it was all said and done, it reminded me very much of the Baghdatis final, which was tough. I was the favourite.
"I got to the finals in a really good manner. Then when it was all said and done, Rocket gave me the trophy, I was standing in front of the people, I don’t know, it’s when it really hits me.
"When I start thinking about what I was going to say, every subject I touch actually is very meaningful and very emotional.
"Thanking your team, congratulating Marin, thanking the people, thanking the tournament. At the end it’s like one big party.
"‘But I hoped over time in the speech I would start to relax a little bit, but I couldn’t. It was what it was. I wish it wasn’t so sometimes.
"At the same time I’m happy I can show emotions and share it with the people. If I got emotional, it’s because it was a full crowd again. No people in the stadium wouldn’t make me emotional, I’ll tell you that. This is for them really also."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here