I think this whole polemic is created by the spin the press have put on what Federer says, which effectively is "Any of us 4 are in with a chance" - he might even have said he's surprised that the bookies have chosen one above the other 3 but he's no betting man: the bookies probably only did this because of the volume of betting on Andy...
... Federer is a nice guy, he's very rarely outright negative about anyone, but once you're on tape, anyone can take a pair of scissors (digital these days) to whatever you said, and cut it to make it sound as negative as possible. Fed learned that, and these days he makes it as hard as possible for the editors but still...
... storm in a teacup!
I've seen the video. His comment wasn't taken out of context. Besides, I didn't think it was particularly bad anyway. However, you could tell he was biting his tongue. He was throwing in the odd backhanded compliment.
Federer is a nice guy off the court when he's dominating. He doesn't walk past an umpire without shaking his hand when he's winning.
