Federer: 'I have no problem with Nadal'

Roger Federer has attempted to cool tensions with rival Rafael Nadal, warning organisers of the Madrid Masters they have risked turning the tournament into a debacle.

The tournament will be played on blue clay for the first time, despite strong opposition from a number of top players, including Rafael Nadal.

Nadal recently quit his position as vice-president of the ATP player council in frustration at Federer's lack of support over proposed changes to the ranking system.

However, despite their conflicting views over the rankings system and the recent election of Brad Drewitt as ATP president, Federer is fully behind Nadal in opposing the new blue clay.

"I'm against it because Nadal is against it and we would have other options," Federer told Swiss journalist Rene Stauffer. "But tournament director Ion Tirias has insisted ad nauseam. In the end we said: He does a lot of good things for tennis so we let him go with this one. But it isn't good that he has such things in his hands."

"I have no idea how this will go. We were against it, Nadal even vehemently and I support him. He fears that a tradition is getting broken and that one tournament director wants to have blue clay, the other one grey, green or red one."

"I'm also for traditions but I can understand it that new things have to get tested. The clay in Madrid has to be perfect though otherwise it will be a debacle for the tournament."

While ATP player council president Federer supports Nadal in opposing the blue clay in Madrid, he insists it is not a reconciliatory effort in a bid to repair his relationship with the Spaniard, and he admitted the pair had not spent much time together.

"That has nothing to do with it," Federer said. "This topic has been talked about one year ago before our dissensions about the election of the new ATP president or the system of the world rankings."

He added: "We have seen each other not that often. He wasn't in Rotterdam and Dubai, I wasn't in Shanghai and he wasn't in Bercy. We only saw each other in London, Melbourne and briefly in Indian Wells. We have a bit more distance at the moment compared to times when we saw each other for weeks nearly daily."

"That's one of the reasons why there have occurred certain problems as we couldn't communicate that often. That shouldn't be an excuse though. But I also think it's normal that we have differences in opinion. I don't have a problem with Nadal no matter what he says or thinks."

Date: 28.04.2012, Source: ESPN

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Federer takes a holiday as Monte Carlo begins

Roger Federer won't start his clay season for another three weeks, when the world No. 3 plays the Madrid Masters.

But while the rest of the ATP elite are arriving in rainy Monte Carlo, the first Masters 1000 of the spring clay season, the Swiss has sent along a few holiday snaps taken during his current time off.

Federer and his family went off to an undisclosed location, but the 16-time Grand Slam champion did indulge his fans by posting a few underwater pictures to his Facebook page.

"Just finishing up my vacation and sending everyone greetings from under the water!" he wrote of the picture, which shows him up close to the camera. Federer and wife Mirka celebrated their third wedding anniversary in recent days.

But indications are that playtime is now over for Federer, who has brought in regular training partner Jesse Levine for a practice block as the Swiss sharpens up for the clay campaign. Federer has three titles in 2012, having won Rotterdam, Dubai and Indian Wells.

Rivals Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray are all primed for the Monte Carlo start, with Djokovic back after not playing in 2011, Nadal seeking an unprecedented eighth straight trophy and Murray keen to bounce back after losing the Miami hardcourt final a fortnight ago to Djokovic.

Date: 18.04.2012, Source: Tennistalk

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Switzerland meets Netherlands

The draw for the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas World Group play-offs, to be played on September 14-16, is out. Switzerland will play the Netherlands in Holland. Holland won the last rubber 3:2 in Fribourg in 2005.

The best Dutch player is Robin Haase, ranked world number 51. He is the only representative of his country in the Top 100.

The winners in the World Group play-offs will take their place in next year's World Group, while the losers will compete in Group I.

Date: 13.04.2012

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Consistent Federer aims for more glory

Roger Federer is 30 years old and for 12 straight seasons he has lifted silverware. Last month, when he was asked to define success, the Swiss superstar said, "I'm a tennis player, so I judge success on the tennis court if I'm winning or losing... I love winning tennis tournaments, especially when you put in all the hard work."

This year, Federer has maintained his late-2011 season form and compiled a 23-3 match record, with a 4-1 mark against Top 10 opponents. By lifting three straight ATP World Tour titles at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam (d. del Potro), the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships (d. Murray) and the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells (d. Isner), he improved to a 73-30 record in tour-level finals.

Brad Gilbert exclusively told ATPWorldTour.com, "He is playing great tennis. No one can rule him out of a return to World No. 1 or adding to his major haul."

Federer started the last of his 285 weeks at No. 1 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings on 1 June 2010. Over the course of the next two months, Federer must defend 1,830 points through Roland Garros. By comparison, Rafael Nadal has 4,700 points and World No. 1 Novak Djokovic 2,970 points to defend.

Federer's consistency in his six tournaments this year has proven he could potentially make up ground on his higher-ranked rivals, and, ultimately, put himself in contention to break Pete Sampras' record of 286 weeks at World No. 1.

Certainly, Federer was in a positive mood in the build-up to the Sony Ericsson Open last month. He said, "I have played some of my best tennis now, since I have turned 30 last August."

A look at the record books indicates that seven players aged 30 plus have picked up major titles in the Open Era. Rod Laver was 30 when he completed his second calendar year Grand Slam in 1969, then Ken Rosewall (37 at the 1972 Australian Open), Andres Gimeno (34 at 1972 Roland Garros), Jimmy Connors (33 at the 1983 US Open), Andres Gomez (30 at 1990 Roland Garros), Pete Sampras (31 at 2002 US Open) and Andre Agassi (32 at the 2003 Australian Open).

With 16 Grand Slam championships titles, Federer should never be ruled out. As Gilbert told ATPWorldTour.com, "Roger is the youngest 30 year old I've ever seen. He never misses a Slam. He is always prepared for the big tournaments and has never had surgery. He has a team of geniuses. Andre was 35 when he reached the 2005 US Open final. I am sure he is an inspiration to Federer to keep playing."

Over the past three months, Federer has added 865 points to his South African Airways ATP Rankings. The World No. 3 is currently 900 points behind No. 2-ranked Nadal, which means the Spaniard and Djokovic will be looking over their shoulders, as the focus shifts to Europe and the road to Roland Garros and Wimbledon.

Date: 07.04.2012, Source: ATP

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Roger Federer hopes to meet Kaka

16-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer wishes to meet Brazilian football player Kaka, when he travel to South American Tour at end of the season.

Former World No. 1 Roger Federer has receives a jersey from Santos Neymar, but tennis star said he don’t know Neymar and never saw him in playing Brazil football team, told during an interview last week in Miami to the Brazilian TV. Federer has got a Brazilian national team on the back and number with 11, which it went to his own surname.

30-year-old Federer has desired to meet Brazilian national football player Kaka at end of the year, where Swiss star is schedule to play couple of exhibition matches in Brazil and Colombia in December. Swiss Maestro said Brazil team is one of the strongest football team in the world, which filled with amazing players.

Kaka

World No. 3 Federer will take on World No. 6 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in an Exhibition match in Colombia and also hopes to play in Argentina. The exhibition matches will be played on clay courts.

Swiss champion’s agent Tony Godsick said exhibition matches are likely to play in Colombia, Chile and Mexico and Brazil is still in under talks.

In other news, Roger was interviewed by Felipe Andreoli for Brazilian TV and Felipe bring out the funnies in Fed! The interview starts out tame but he manages to get Roger to pick his choices for most beautiful female tennis stars (yes, first he said Mirka then… Gabriela Sabatini and Anna Kournikova!) and even gifts him with some Rafa-like underwear. The best part is when he tries to get Roger to break a racquet… which he can’t do. Or is it when he gets Roger to kick around a football? So many great parts I can’t pick just one. Watch!

Date: 04.04.2012

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