Roger Federer Commends No. 1 Novak Djokovic, Prepares for Davis Cup

Lauren LynchJul 7, 2011

Roger Federer, the only man to have defeated Novak Djokovic in 2011, congratulated the new World No. 1 on his recent success.

"He deserves to become No. 1 after an immense start to the year," former No. 1 Federer told the Associated Press on Tuesday. "When you lose so rarely, your confidence carries you a long way."

The Swiss beat Djokovic at the French Open semifinals and ended his famous winning streak at 41. The Serbian is now 48-1 after his Wimbledon win.

Federer went home to Switzerland to prepare for the Davis Cup after losing to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the Wimbledon quarterfinals.

The World No. 3 did not watch the final between the top two players, despite it being the first time in seven years that someone other than he or Rafael Nadal held the top ranking and eight years since either player held the Wimbledon title.

"Unfortunately, I wasn't able to watch the final, but for sure it was being played at a very high level," he continued. "And he's proved before at Wimbledon that he can play on grass. It's good for tennis that it happened."

Federer is moving on from his loss and is participating in this weekend's Davis Cup quarterfinal between Switzerland and Portugal.

Switzerland is now in the Europe/Africa Zone Group I after falling out of the World Group in 2010.

Federer has a 37-11 record in Davis Cup match play, and this marks the first time he has played since the September 2009 victory against Italy.

The top Swiss player said, “I'm really looking forward to helping Switzerland begin the process of getting back into the World Group.”

The playoff will be played on an indoor hard court in Bern, Switzerland from July 8-10. The winning nation will progress to the World Group playoffs in September.