With the Davis Cup final against France looming, Roger Federer and his Swiss team mate Stan Wawrinka on Tuesday played down talk of an internal row, sparked by the pair’s fiery clash at the ATP World Tour Finals last week.
During their semi-final encounter in London, which Federer won 4-6 7-5 7-6(6), TV footage showed Wawrinka asking Federer’s box to keep quiet between serves and complaining to chair umpire Cedric Mourier that his opponent’s wife Mirka had heckled him.
It was then reported that they had a dressing room row that extended long into the night, with John McEnroe claiming their discussion became quite heated.
Both players, however, talked down the incident at a news conference in Lille, where the Davis Cup final will be played on clay from Friday to Sunday.
“We had a conversation after the match. Everything’s totally relaxed about the situation. We’re old enough. We have Severin (Luthi) as a coach and Davis Cup captain and friend who was there, as well,” Federer said.
“I just wanted to see if there was any hard feelings because it was probably one of the loudest moments of the match, around 5-4, 5-5 score. Clearly a lot of noise.
“Yeah, like I said, there’s no hard feelings whatsoever. We’re having a good time here. We are friends, not enemies. But obviously it was maybe one of those moments, heat-of-the-moment situation.”
FEDERER AND WAWRINKA PATCH THINGS UP
Wawrinka said: “I think first thing, we had no problem together. We talked about that already straight after the match. Not only about that, about many things. We know how to deal when we have a small thing like that.
“There’s not much to say because it’s become a big deal because of the press, because of you. But for us it’s nothing really.”