"I could just as easily be in the semis right now, but I'm not," said Tennys Sandgren.
Tennys Sandgren saw seven match points slip from his grip as Roger Federer pulled off one of the most miraculous comebacks of his career.
The 38-year-old Swiss, who took a medical timeout for a groin issue earlier in the match, fought off seven match points in a stirring 6-3, 2-6, 2-6, 7-6(8), 6-3 triumph.
More: Federer's Match-Point Miracle
"I mean, I could just as easily be in the semis right now, but I'm not," Sandgren said afterward. "So back to the drawing board."
The 100th-ranked Sandgren, who was bidding to become the lowest-ranked man to reach the AO semifinals since a 114th-ranked Patrick McEnroe contested the final four in 1991, was philosophical in the face of a gut-wrenching defeat.
Sandgren conceded he could have been a bit more aggressive, but credited Federer for "fantastic" play under match-point pressure.
"I wanted to play out the point and see if he would give me a look, give me something to play with," Sandgren said. "I guess I only had one on my serve. I was doing that, and he was playing the points fantastic. He kept the ball deep and kept pressure with his backhand. Didn't seem like, especially during the second and third set, that wasn't the case.
"If I played a few, like three, four, five deep shots to his backhand, I'd get a look. I wasn't getting a look in those rallies. He was playing them great. You play it as it comes. I thought I did that. I'm sure I could have played them better, at least some of the moments better. But I didn't, so here I am."
Sandgren, who played three hours, 37 minutes in his fourth-round win over 12th-seeded Fabio Fognini, said he felt Federer lift his level as the fourth-set progressed.
"I thought once he kind of could see the finish line being a real thing, I thought his level picked up, as my level was, like, maybe decreasing a little bit," Sandgren said. "I did think he picked his level up a little bit in the fifth set, which is to be expected.
"When you survive that many times, you can't give a good player, let alone maybe the best player ever, that many chances to come back. They're going to find their game and start playing well. That seemed to me what happened."
Photo credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve
