Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France celebrates after defeating Blaz Kavcic of Slovenia in their men’s singles match, yesterday.
MELBOURNE: Tennis great Roger Federer said he was saddened by American cyclist Lance Armstrong’s admission that he cheated his way to seven Tour de France wins and believed it would have a negative impact on all sport.
Armstrong confessed in a televised interview with chat show host Oprah Winfrey this week to using banned performance-enhancing substances to establish himself as one of the biggest names in sport.
“What a sad story,” 17-times Grand-Slam winner Federer said after reaching the fourth round of the Australian Open yesterday.
“I don’t know what to say. It just really saddens me to see that someone did this for such a long time.
“Obviously he’s hurt his sport in a big way, even though he helped it in the beginning. But now the burden they live under, all other sports maybe as well.
“I’m an active athlete right now and it’s not fun times really to be in sports to a degree. I guess all I needed to see was the first few minutes of the interview and then I knew what was the deal, and the rest I don’t really care.
“It’s just very saddening this story, to be honest,” he said yesterday. REUTERS
