Roger Federer, who has been in a magical form at almost 36, announced on Monday that he will not play in the French Open, which begins in two weeks, and will instead focus on the grass-court and hardcourt events ahead, including Wimbledon and the US Open.
This will be the first year since Federer turned professional in 1998 that he will not play a tour event on clay.
“I’ve
been working really hard, both on and off the court, during the last
month, but in order to try and play on the ATP World Tour for many years
to come, I feel it’s best to skip the clay-court season this year,” he said in a statement.
“The start to the year has been magical for me, but I need to recognize
that scheduling will be the key to my longevity moving forward.”
Smart and selective scheduling has played a big role in Federer’s
enduring excellence. He is the most successful men’s player of the Open
era, with 18 Grand Slam singles titles, but his performance in 2017 has
surpassed even his own expectations.
After a six-month layoff to heal his left knee, he won his first Grand Slam title
in nearly five years at the Australian Open in January, beating his
longtime nemesis Rafael Nadal in a five-set final. Federer then swept to
the titles in the prestigious Masters tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami.
He is 19-1 in 2017, with the only loss having come in the second round in Dubai against the Russian qualifier Evgeny Donskoy.
But
after playing in a record 65 consecutive Grand Slam singles
tournaments, Federer will have missed three of the last five by skipping
the French Open, which begins May 28, for a second straight year.
Federer
won the title at Roland Garros in 2009 and has reached the final four
other times. In his statement, he said he looked forward to seeing the
French fans in Paris next year, but at this stage of his career, with
little left to prove and plenty of mileage on his balletic frame, there
are no certainties.
“I’m
very confident that Roger will play the French Open again,” Severin
Lüthi, Federer’s longtime coach and close friend, said in a telephone
interview from Switzerland on Monday. “He can play a different schedule
next year. It’s not because he’s not playing the French this year that
he’s done with it. It’s not because he is not playing on clay this year
that he won’t be playing on it more again in the years ahead.”
Lüthi
called the decision to withdraw “a very tough one” and said it was
settled on Monday after “a few days” of training on red clay in
Switzerland.
“We
always said we were going to take the decision around the 10th of May,”
Lüthi said. “We just wanted to have all the information and also wait a
little to see how practice went and how he feels.”
Lüthi
said Federer was healthy. Federer had expressed concern about how his
postoperative left knee might respond to returning to clay-court tennis,
but Lüthi said the knee was not a factor in Federer’s withdrawal from
the French Open.
“You
never know,” Lüthi said. “You don’t have the guarantee that you are not
getting hurt, but really the knee is in perfect shape, so that luckily
was not an issue.”
Federer’s team ultimately decided that it was not worth the risk to make the transition to clay for just one event.
“For
the body, with the change of surface, at one stage, you maybe pay the
price for it a little bit,” Lüthi said. “So I’m really convinced this is
a good decision.”
In an effort to remain physically and mentally fresh, Federer has not played on tour since beating Nadal in the Miami Open final on April 2, although Federer did play two exhibition matches for his foundation during this layoff.
“This
is more of an investment for the future,” Lüthi said. “The goal is to
keep on playing ultimately for many more years on tour, and that’s why
he has to make priorities, and unfortunately the French Open was not the
highest priority in this case.”
Winning
an eighth Wimbledon is clearly Priority No. 1. Federer’s most recent
triumph at the All England Club was in 2012. He was a finalist in 2014
and 2015 and a semifinalist last year
in an otherwise downbeat season. Wimbledon remains his favourite
tournament, and grass probably remains his best canvas. His career
record on grass is 152-23, his best winning percentage on any surface.
Federer plans to return to the tour for the German grass-court events in Stuttgart and Halle in June before Wimbledon.
“For
me, the most important thing is that he’s healthy, which is the case
now and for the last few weeks and months,” Lüthi said. “And the
positive point is he can play two tournaments before Wimbledon. You
don’t have the guarantee to always come back and immediately win the
tournament.
“For
Roger, it’s not that easy, even if people think it looks like that. He
has these two tournaments, and if, let’s say, it would not go his way,
he still has enough time to practice on grass for Wimbledon. He’s also
going to be fresh and motivated and inspired, and that’s also very
important.”
Date: 17 May 2017, Source: The New York Times
