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The sting of squandering two championship points in his epic Wimbledon final loss to Novak Djokovic remained with Roger Federer for "a couple weeks."
In a couple of days, Federer will take his shot at revenge in London.
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A defiant Djokovic denied two championship points in the final set edging Federer, 7-6 (5), 1-6, 7-6 (4), 4-6, 13-12 (3) to successfully defend his Wimbledon title in The Championships' longest final—and first men’s major final decided in a fifth-set tie breaker in July.
Four months to the day after the pair played a final for the ages on grass, they'll meet at the ATP Finals on a quicker hard court in London's O2 Arena.
The third-seeded Swiss said he's excited for Episode 49 of this rivalry as he aims to snap a four-match losing streak to Djokovic and eradicate the ghosts of a haunting Wimbledon loss.
"Maybe it took me a few days, couple weeks at most, you know, to get over the Wimbledon loss," Federer told the media in London. "At the end of the day, I still thought I played a great final and a great tournament, beating Rafa there along the way.
"I'm excited playing against [Novak]. I'm excited to see how he's going to play tonight, as well. It's definitely going to give me some more information about what to expect. But other than that, I think I need to focus on my game, what I do best. And regardless of what I need to do, I just hope I play well."
Five-time champion Djokovic holds a 26-22 career edge over six-time champion Federer, who believes he's not carrying any scar tissue into the rematch. Federer's last win over Djokovic came at the O2 Arena in the 2015 World Tour Finals round-robin stage.
"We'll find out, but I think it's all flushed away from my side," Federer said of any lingering scars from Wimbledon. "A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then now. We have played a lot of matches since, and I think we both look back at a great match.
"I think we both can take away some confidence from the match. Him obviously a lot. Me maybe a tad bit less, but at the end of the day, I wasn't hoping him not to be in my section or in my draw. I didn't hope I was never going to play him again.
"Actually, it's good for me to play him again, and maybe that all helps to get a chance to get him back or whatever it is, but at the end of the day, I'm here for the World Tour Finals and not because of the Wimbledon finals."
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