Roger Federer was looking to defend a Grand Slam title for the first time at Wimbledon in 2004.
Federer won Wimbledon in 2003, which was his first ever Grand Slam title victory after beating Mark Philippoussis in the final.
The young Swiss star added a second major title at the 2004 Australian Open, but suffered a disappointing early exit from Roland Garros.
However, after defending his grass court title at the tournament in Halle, Federer was in good form heading into his first Grand Slam title defence.
The embarrassing thing Roger Federer might have done if he’d lost in the 2004 Wimbledon final
Federer breezed into his second successive Wimbledon final, dropping just one set in his quarter-final against Lleyton Hewitt.
Just one match away from defending his title, Federer would play American Andy Roddick, who he had beaten in the Wimbledon semi-finals the year prior.
Roddick was the US Open champion at the time, but Federer was able to beat him, 4-6 7-5 7-6(3) 6-4, to successfully defend the Wimbledon title.
After Federer won the 2004 Wimbledon title he was noticeably very emotional, something that he was asked about in an interview with the Guardian a day after his victory.
In his response, Federer admitted that tennis elicited emotions out of him that he doesn’t feel in everyday life, and claimed he would probably have cried if he had lost to Roddick as well.
“Well. I don’t cry at movies too often. But on the tennis court I find it hard to keep my emotions together,” said Federer. “I used to cry a lot when I lost matches, which was a little embarrassing. As a teenager I would cry after almost every match I lost for about half an hour.
“Now I don’t do that, thankfully. Hardly ever. I think I might have cried if I lost to Roddick yesterday. Certainly I would have been fighting the tears. But I don’t usually cry after a win.
“And I’d rather I hadn’t, particularly in front of millions and millions of people watching on television. I don’t know why it happens. It is probably just because of the relief. The fact that it all paid off, all the effort, finally.”
Roger Federer admits that he had a ‘very bad temper’ as a junior player
While he was known as one of the most composed players on tour, Federer actually admitted that was not always the case.
After his 2004 Wimbledon win, Federer admitted that he used to be very argumentative as a junior player.
“Honestly. I had a very bad temper, I was very aggressive,” admitted Federer. “Always testing the limits, always arguing over calls, but never cheating. Always upset with myself.
“Angry at the conditions all the time. It got to the point where my parents threatened to stop driving me to tournaments if I carried on like this. They were too embarrassed to be seen with me.
He added, “I would lose it. I was screaming and slamming rackets… it made me feel like an idiot.”
While Federer was often praised for being ‘classy’, this anger did very occasionally sneak into his senior performances.
Most notably this frustration showed during his match against Novak Djokovic at the Miami Open in 2009, where he smashed his racket on the ground.
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