World number one Roger Federer regretted easing the pressure on Rafael Nadal after he had romped through the first set of their much-hyped French Open final on Sunday.
A nervous Nadal could barely string together any winners during the opening set but in the end 51 unforced errors by the Swiss allowed the Spaniard to retain his Roland Garros title.
"He was not as comfortable because obviously the pressure is high and it took him a while to get used to that," Federer told a news conference following his 1-6, 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 defeat.
"But once he got into the match, I knew over five sets he would be very, very strong.
"I won the first set easily and usually in a situation like that I don't let things go by. But it's a final. It's against Nadal. It's on clay.
"That makes it very difficult, more difficult maybe than in other cases. So you get back into the match and at the pivotal points I didn't play very well."
The world number one, who was left one match shy of becoming the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to hold all four Grand Slams at once, was broken in the second game of the second set with one of Nadal's trademark backhand crosscourt passing shots.
LOST WAY
He then lost his way, leaving his opponent to claim the set in 32 minutes.
"You have to seize the opportunities when they appear in order to control the game and I gave him the control of the game very easily in the second set," said the Swiss top seed.
"Then he really started to play very well. He started to move much better on that surface and it was very difficult for me to get back into the match.
"If I had broken in the (fourth game of the) third set at 0-40, the match would have been different. And in the fourth I had my chance again."
Federer added: "I should have returned better on his serve and I didn't manage to do that very well today."
The Swiss was not too disappointed to miss out on becoming the first man ever to win his first eight Grand Slam finals.
"I was very pleased to reach a final here," he said. "I'm very positive for the rest of the season, very positive for next year, because this is going to give me a lot of confidence and I cannot complain about my results."
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