Roger Federer: I Beat Top 10 Players Without Playing My Best

Roger Federer has an optimistic mindset about his chances for next year's campaign. The former world's No.1 tennis player believed the criticism regarding his 2013 tennis season is unfair, stressing that he can still compete at a high level as proven by his victories against Top 10 opponents without playing his best tennis.

The 32-year old Federer only won one tournament last year at the Gerry Weber Open and failed to advance into the quarterfinals of the Wimbledon and U.S. Open Championships. The Swiss tennis star's on-court struggle prompted tennis writers and other pundits to speculate that the end is near for arguably the greatest tennis player of all time.

However, the "Swiss Maestro" insisted the speculations are quite premature as he believed he can still play tennis competitively. Federer added that his back injury really caused trouble for him the entire year, but nevertheless the criticism helped him grow not only as a player but a person.

"In the circumstances, it was actually an interesting season. It is no joke being injured, of course. But I had to get through it, I had to question everything. Along with the back problems, I had other setbacks of a kind I had seldom had in the previous ten years," Federer said during a recent interview via Tennis Tonic.

"But nonetheless it was an interesting experience -- to see how different people reacted, and how I dealt with this situation myself. Sometimes, I could hardly move properly, and yet was sharply criticized by some people," he added.      

Optimistic for 2014

Federer said losing will always be part of the game, but the important thing is how one responds to these struggles and the criticism that come with it.

"Defeats are part of tennis. What matters is how you react. What is also important for me is that I am honest with myself. I am the sort of person who often questions everything; I did the same when things were going really well for me. That's why I am not affected much by the criticism, which I don't think is justified."

Federer, who is still training with bigger rackets despite having mediocre results last year, believes that he can be a force to be reckoned with next year, thanks to a strong run he had at the end of the ATP season.

"I reached the final in Basel and the semi-finals at Paris-Bercy and the World Tour Finals, and beat top-ten players without playing my best tennis. If my serve or my forehand had been a bit more solid, the results could have been much better." Federer said via Tennis Tonic.