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Tipsarevic laments missed opportunity


 

Originally published on: 07/09/12 00:00

In reaching the quarter-finals in New York Tipsarevic matched his previous best performance at a Grand Slam event but was unable to find a way past Spain's David Ferrer, who earned a place in the semi-finals against Novak Djokovic.

“I feel I'm improving,” Tipsarevic said. “I'm honestly really sad because I didn't clinch my chance to be in the last four of a Grand Slam, which would really help me not just stay where I am, but hopefully attack the world No.5 position, which was my goal at the beginning of the year.

“If you look purely at [ranking] points, I am playing better this year than I was playing last year. In my opinion this is one of the toughest years – if not the toughest year – for a professional player to just defend his status as a top_ѥ10 player. I think I did not do a bad job at least this year. There are still two months to go, but I'm feeling sad because I didn't clinch the chance to attack the top five.”

At No.9 in the world rankings and with Rafael Nadal injured, Tipsarevic has a good chance to land one of the places in the elite eight-man field at the season-ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. However, he has plenty of ground to make up on those above him.

The Serb paid tribute to Ferrer, who beat him in five sets after four and a half hours. “He’s improved his game so much,” Tipsarevic said.  “Two parts of his game which he has really improved are his first serve and his return. He's returning really amazing. My first serve is one of my biggest weapons, and I wasn't able to get as many free points as I was maybe expecting.”

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Tim Farthing, Tennishead Editorial Director & Owner, has been a huge tennis fan his whole life. He's a tennis journalist and entrepreneur as well as playing tennis to a national standard. He also helps manage his local club and volunteers for his local tennis organisation. He's a specialist in content about the administration of professional tennis and tennis coaching for all levels.