Not many players can say they have turned down the opportunity to play with Roger Federer.
Federer is one of the most popular players in the history of tennis, and continues to be even three years after his retirement.
This was evident at the latest edition of the Laver Cup in San Francisco, with Federer in the crowd for many of the matches.
Federer had to turn players including Carlos Alcaraz down for a practice, but a former Roland Garros semifinalist has revealed he once rejected the now 20-time major champion.
Fernando Meligeni reveals he once refused to practice with Roger Federer
That player is 1999 Roland Garros semifinalist Fernando Meligeni, who has claimed he would refuse to coach Alcaraz.
In a new interview with Clay magazine, Meligeni was asked about the time that he refused to practice with Federer after being asked to by his late coach Peter Lundgren.
This was in the early 2000s, when Federer would have still been in his late teens or early twenties and had yet to show himself on the global stage.
“We were in Hamburg and Peter Lundgren, Federer’s coach, asked us to play with him,” said Meligeni. “And we didn’t want to. ‘Federer isn’t good, Federer doesn’t play that much.’ And we said no.”
Federer has been open about his bad temper as a junior player, and this is something that Meligeni has suggested contributed to his decision to turn the Swiss away.
Meligeni then spoke about Rafael Nadal, who he claims was always destined for greatness.
“First, because he broke everything, he was too nervous,” Corretja said about Federer. “His backhand was pretty bad, weak. And we played on clay, which he didn’t play so well on either. Then he started playing better on hard courts and clay came later. But that’s typical.
“When Nadal appeared, I met him when he was 15 in Aix-en-Provence. He reached the final, I lost in the quarterfinals or semifinals, and we had a chat in the changing room. You could tell that the kid played really well and that he was going to be great.
“Alex Corretja told us, ‘This kid is going to be number one in the world.’ Sure, sure. And when I saw him play, I knew: this kid plays like crazy.”
What happened when Fernando Meligeni played Roger Federer?
Meligeni and Federer never played each other on the singles court, but they did have one meeting on the doubles court a few years after the Brazilian refused their practice.
This was at the 2003 Australian Open, in a rare Grand Slam doubles appearance for Federer, where he partnered his compatriot Yves Allegro.
Federer and Allegro beat Meligeni and his French partner Antony Dupuis, 6-3 6-4, and this appeared to be a turning point.
Meligeni admitted that Federer played really well during that match, “I only played with him once, in doubles against him. I was playing with Dupuis, a Frenchman. And he was playing with Allegro. It was in the second round of the Australian Open, and you could already tell he was playing really well.”
Federer won his first Wimbledon title in 2003, the same year that Meligeni retired from professional tennis.
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