Roger Federer was able to see plenty of positives despite his quarter-final loss to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at the Monte Carlo Masters on Friday.
Federer was making his return to action in Monte Carlo after undergoing knee surgery for the first time in his career in February. The Swiss defeated the Spanish duo of Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Roberto Bautista Agut on his way to the last eight of the ATP 1000 event but saw Tsonga complete a thrilling 3-6 6-2 7-5 win in the quarters.
Federer said he thought he had his match won on two different occasions but was still upbeat despite the eventual loss.
"I thought I was going to win the match maybe after the first set. I thought I was going to win the match maybe [at] the beginning of the third. But that doesn't matter really," the 34-year-old said. "It was a good match. It was nice to play an intense match. I'm happy [with] how the body reacted. So many good things this week. It's all positive for me."
"Number one, it's good to play a tournament after having had surgery. Number two, it was good to play one match. It was good to have a match with a rest, then to play again. Now it was good to play back-to-back, yesterday and today. Then it was good to play 2 hours 10 [minutes] today."
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga missed the chance to make his first final appearance at the tournament when he lost to countryman Gael Monfils in the semi-finals.
"I was expecting a difficult match, and that is exactly what happened," the Frenchman said after his win over Federer. "He was very reactive, he was running well. From the start, I thought he was very fast. But I was able to turn it around. He dropped his level a little bit and I was able to come back into the match and end up winning. It's good for me."
"It's always special to win against Federer. I'm happy that I won. All victories are good to take. The one yesterday was very important, and today too. Again, I'm in the semis. I'm happy that I'm still in the tournament and I have a chance to go to the final for the first time."
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