Federer: "I'm happy with my progress along the way"

After his best performance against Rafael Nadal since their four-set battle at the 2012 Australian Open, Roger Federer said that he was pleased with his performance and his aggressive approach despite his 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 loss to his great rival.

Federer took the battle to Nadal from the outset and his backhand was significantly more effective against the lefty than in their past three meetings, in which the Swiss won an average of just six games a match. His decision to come over his backhand return on Nadal’s serve rather than slice was a signature tactic of the match. And his dazzling crosscourt backhand winner (play Hot Shot video below) to take the first set was one of the best he’s ever hit against Nadal.



“I’m not totally unhappy about the match. I could have played a bit better, but I think I was playing well and  tactics were working. Of course, I always have to adjust to faster courts, slower courts when I play Rafa. Plus it is him; it's the type of game I don't see very often…

Federer captured the first set 7-5, pouncing on a late break point at 5-5 30/40. Nadal, however, battled back with a late break of his own, converting on his second set point with a forehand down-the-line.

Federer had executed a highly aggressive game plan early on, which included topping many backhand returns rather than engaging his customary slice, and attacking the net with authority. Nadal turned the tables late in the second set, anticipating his intentions and employing a highly efficient brand of tennis from the baseline. Federer’s unforced error count would rise to 44 as Nadal continued to apply pressure on his serve with deep angled returns with significant pace.

Nadal took an immediate lead in the third set, breaking for 2-0 and holding serve from there to the finish line. In a dramatic final game, Federer rallied from 0/40 and eventually saved four match points before Nadal rifled a forehand down the line to end the match. The Hawkeye replay, shown only on television, revealed that his shot had missed by the narrowest of margins, but only after he had shaken hands with Federer, who did not challenge.

“I'm happy with my progress along the way. Could have won tonight. Should have won tonight, who knows? But at the end, I think Rafa's confidence and the way he's playing at the moment got him through. So for me, I think it was a good step in the right direction.”

The 32-year-old winner of 21 ATP World Tour Masters 1000s and six Barclays ATP World Tour Finals would not be drawn into second guessing his decision to not challenge Nadal’s forehand on match point, which Hawkeye on television showed was out. “At this point it doesn't matter. I'm sitting here,” he said.

Federer, who this week shelved a larger prototype used in Hamburg and Gstaad for his traditional 90 inch head, said that he’s looking ahead to the US Open with a positive approach.

“My mind's already totally geared into what I'm going to do tomorrow, next day, and the following day, and looking ahead at the US Open.  So I'm excited about the next sort of 10 days.”

Federer has won five Western and Southern Opens during his career including last year.

Date: 17th August 2013, Source: ATP

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Federer rallies to beat Haas, awaits Nadal - Dimitrov winner

Defending champion Roger Federer did his part to set up a potential quarter-final showdown with Rafael Nadal, as he came back to defeat German Tommy Haas 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 on Thursday afternoon at the Western & Southern Open. Nadal, last week Coupe Rogers champion, plays Grigor Dimitrov in the evening session.

It appeared that Federer wasn't long for the tournament after a stunningly bad start against Haas. The 35-year-old Haas needed only 31 minutes to win the first set and was up 4-2 in the second before Federer started to approach the net, hitting shots with confidence and taking control.

''You know, being down 6-1, 3-1, you don't feel like Superman out there,'' Federer said. ''You feel a bit slower, you feel a bit weaker, you feel a bit softer, whatever it is. I was trying to push myself. But at the end, as the match wore on, I felt better.

''That's always good news.''

Against Haas, Federer forced a third set after rallying from a break down in the second. He went up the decisive break, 5-3, and served out the victory after one hour and 52 minutes.

"I think I had too many of those small hiccups that kept on adding up, because overall I wasn't playing terrible. I was just missing by a margin or putting myself in a tough spot," said Federer. "Then on top of that, Tommy took advantage of it, played well when he had to... I was just hanging on, and I'm happy I did because it paid off. At the end, I'm very happy I was able to turn a match around like this.

Federer skipped Montreal last week to get ready for Cincinnati, hoping a good showing this week would get him ready for the U.S. Open.

''Every match gives me more info to tell me if I'm on the right path or not,'' he said. ''But I'm a strong believer that I am on the right path right now, and I just need to make sure that mentally I stay cool about it.

"Those are the matches I knew just kind of what I need right now," he added. "Every minute more in a match court is a good thing right now. It gives me a lot of opportunity in the next match to do better."

This 32-year-old Swiss is chasing an unprecedented sixth Cincinnati title this week.

"I saw a little bit of the Rafael Nadal match at Wimbledon, but the rest of the year for him has been unbelievable, how he came back and how successful he's played, almost always achieving finals really," said Federer. "So it's a great season for him. He's coming into this tournament clearly very confident.

"I'll be excited to see how he plays tonight. Then if I play him tomorrow, it's clearly going to be a difficult match because he comes in with a lot of confidence again."

Date: 15th August 2013, Source: ATP and AP

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Federer opens Cincinnati defence and back to old racquet

Defending champion Roger Federer opened his bid for a record sixth Cincinnati title with a 6-3, 7-6(7) win over German Philipp Kohlschreiber on Tuesday night at the Western & Southern Open.

"I think it was a match where I had to sort of just fight to come through and hope get over the finish line sort of thing," he said. "I was playing really well at times, and then sometimes it was maybe a bit up and down. But assessing the performance overall, I'm very happy. It's good to be back and playing pain free. My mind's good. I was in a good place while I was playing, so it felt nice to win at the end."

Federer raced through the opening set in 32 minutes. He double-faulted to give Kohlschreiber a break at 4-2 in the second set, but got back on serve in the next game. After saving a set point for Kohlschreiber at 7-6 in the tie-break, Federer capitalised on his second match point opportunity to improve to a 7-0 mark against the German.

Struggling with a sore back, Federer did not play last week's event in Montreal and has not tested himself on the North American hardcourt since Indian Wells in March.

But the former-world number one signaled that he is ready to challenge for an unprecedented sixth Cincinnati title and then perhaps a sixth U.S. Open to add to his grand slam collection.

"It was important to play a clean match," Federer told reporters. "I had a few tough weeks, months behind me, I was happy to play a clean match.

"I told myself I was not going to come back until I felt no pain in my back. Eventually I started to work out very hard.

"It is a tournament I have always played in lead up to the U.S. Open, I like it here. I love the calmness of this place."

After trying out a larger racquet in Hamburg and Gstaad, Federer returned to his Wilson Pro Staff 90 racquet and said he'd be playing with it through the US Open.

"I'm going to do more racquet testing when I have, again, some more time after the US Open," he said. "I was playing for a month with the black one, but it's a prototype. At the end, I just felt like, you know what, right now I feel like I need to simplify everything and just play with what I know best."

Last year, Federer  became the first player in the Open Era to win the Western & Southern Open title five times. He has a 31-7 tournament record, and will play the winner between 11th-seeded German Tommy Haas and Spaniard Marcel Granollers in the third round.

Date: 14th August 2013, Source: ATP and Reuters

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Catching up with Roger Federer in Cincinnati

Five-time Western & Southern Open champion Roger Federer held his pre-tournament press conference today at the Lindner Family Tennis Center. He talked about his health, his new racquet, and his enjoyment of this setting. Here are the highlights:

How would you sum up the last month?

RF: Yeah, not great, to be honest. I was ready to get over the Wimbledon loss as quick as I could, which I did. I took a short break and then started practicing extremely hard and things were great. I tested racquets and was ready to go to Hamburg and Gstaad and really play tournaments I really enjoy playing, but I couldn’t enjoy them in the end because I just had too many problems with my back and my body. I still ended up playing because it came gradually through the tournament at Hamburg. Midway through and all the way until Gstaad basically…I still was playing OK. It wasn’t like I couldn’t play at all. So that was the frustrating part, that I couldn’t actually play proper tennis, get into the right routines, play the right shots at the right time, because you start compromising a bit. So for me it was a disappointing last sort of two weeks there, which clearly I lost some time. But I was very motivated to come to Hamburg and Gstaad right after Wimbledon, so that was another sort of setback I had to get over as well. And then pulling out of Montreal wasn’t something I really wanted to do but it then gave me more time to work hard and come here really well-prepared. That sort of tougher moments I had to get over – the Wimbledon loss and then at Hamburg and Gstaad, just really not feeling well in moments. But now I’m fit again and I’m mentally motivated, which is very important at this part of the year right now.

Where are you racquet-wise here – are you going back to your old racquet or are you sticking with the bigger one?

RF: Yeah, that was like pushed aside in a way. I was just practicing all the time with the prototype I had. I played also Hamburg and Gstaad with it but because of the issues I had, I couldn’t even really focus on how was I feeling the ball. I was just trying to get through the matches, really. So, yeah, we’ll see how it goes. But so far I am happy with the racquet.

So you are using the bigger one?

RF: I am, yeah.

Not sure about media around the rest of the world but we’ve tried to retire you for three years. At age 32, what is the hardest part of this job as you’ve gotten older and what is the biggest motivator to stay in it?

RF: Well, the motivation is the passion, clearly. Because I think if the passion doesn’t overweigh all the rest, the end is extremely near. As nice as the travel is and playing matches and practicing and all these things, I think if the passion is not there, it just becomes so much harder and then you might be doing it for the wrong reasons. For me, there’s no question about that – that my passion is sky-high and that’s why I’m still doing it. I love what I’m doing and I feel very fortunate that I do have this opportunity day-in, day-out to do it. But clearly I’ve played a lot of matches. I’ve played for a very long time. I feel like I just have to do more in terms of getting ready today than I ever have. When I was younger, a teenager for instance, I would jump up and down for two minutes and then go, ‘OK, here we go.’ For a five-set match today, it would take a half an hour. It’s no problem but that can also really sort of wear you out eventually to do all these little things next to it, just to be actually somewhat ready. It’s like a car. You sort of need to warm it up. And for me, that’s a bit of a change but it sort of happens gradually, to be honest. I haven’t quite felt this huge effect of the new generation coming through yet but I have felt that the game has changed, so you can see that two ways. Is that fun that it changed or is it actually somewhat of a letdown that it has changed so much that it’s all baseline game now? So I just have to adjust to those new conditions over the years now because when I was coming up things were quite different still. But I see it more also as a positive, an opportunity for me to improve again as a player and adapt. That’s what you have got to keep on doing – you have to keep on improving and enjoy what you’re doing and then I think you’re on the right track really.

After Gstaad, did you take off some time immediately to let your back heal or is it a treatment issue?

RF: I got right into it the day after, really. I had a meeting that night, what I was going to do, because thankfully my back didn’t get worse throughout the match in Gstaad. What was it, one hour, just a serving contest with (Daniel) Brands? It wasn’t physically taxing but still, there might have been maybe a slight risk of getting it back to worse or maybe making it the way it was in Hamburg. So I didn’t do the extra time there. What I did was basically I just started to work in my back a lot and on my strength training. I just did that for many days in a row until I felt good enough to go on the tennis court. Basically I started working out on the following day already.

Is there one thing you’re focusing on now?

RF: Getting my game back together, really, and my body. So far so good. I’m motivated. I’m feeling better and I am entering Cincinnati with a good mind set. That’s, right now, it’s key. Now if I could win more matches, that would be good because I did win a title here, and that makes me think I can do something great here. As every other event, you always struggle in the first round.

You’ve won this tournament five times. It’s a tournament you circle on your calendar and is there anything about it that sets it apart from other Masters 1000 tournaments?

RF: Yeah, I mean I think every tournament around the world, maybe 250, 500, 1000 or Grand Slam – it doesn’t matter – has its own sort of feel for it. This one has a great history. I think it’s over 100, 125 years old, so you feel that this tournament has been around for a long time. Some players or some people might say, ‘Oof, it’s not got the big city next to it right away. You don’t see the skyline right as you look away from Center Court and stuff.’ But it doesn’t matter. I think what you find here is you find great fans, people who really enjoy this tournament. A lot of it is the volunteers and people who work here. I think they really wait for this tournament to come around. And clearly for us, we can leave and you sort of forget you played here because you look forward to let’s say New York or so forth. But I’ve always enjoyed playing here. I think that also shows in the matches and in the games I’ve been able to play successful. I like a quiet week like this to be quite honest. I used to like doing more crazy when I was younger. Everything had to be fun and non-stop all the time doing something but I also like it when it’s a bit slower. Here I can take more time for fans and practice and friends. You name it, whoever comes along. I always enjoy my time here in Cincinnati.

Is there any specific about this event – the surface or the balls or weather – that has allowed you to win five times?

RF: I’m not sure. Maybe it’s also the timing of the calendar. Who knows, maybe it gives me enough time to really feel comfortable on the hard courts again. I know it’s a very important week. I’ve also played equally great the weeks sort of before Paris – the Hamburg week, the Madrid week now. I usually always play very well there. OK, now it’s switched with Rome. But for some reason always a couple of weeks before Slams, I usually play well. No doubt that also the surface, I like it a bit faster maybe, even though most my success is on the slower hard courts because that’s just the way things are today. But I really like Center Court…I like the day and night sessions here. I don’t mind the heat anymore. I used to struggle in the heat when I was younger and really worked hard to get used to humidity and heat. And for me that’s no problem, so maybe that’s an advantage for me today as well. I’m happy in the surroundings here. I think it helps as well to be in a good mind set.

Date: 10th August 2013, Source: Cincinnati

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Sampras on Federer’s racquet switch: Worth a try, but beware

Pete Sampras, who played with a Wilson Pro Staff racquet with a small head for his entire career, discusses Roger Federer’s switch to a Wilson racquet with a 98-square-inch head size. Federer, who also played much of his career with a Wilson Pro Staff (90-square-inch head), has been playing with a blacked-out prototype. He is scheduled to return in Cincinnati next week and is it is unclear whether he will stick with the prototype.

“Roger can play with a broomstick. He’s that good,” Sampras told reporters at the Rogers Cup in Toronto, where he played an exhibition against James Blake.

“I think a bigger racquet can help in certain areas, maybe on the high backhand. That’s the shot I feel like it’s helped me (Sampras is now playing with a larger head size). Maybe a little bit more pop on the serve. But it’s more racquet, it’s more power.

“Roger’s forehand is such his bread and butter and if he’s thinking twice about it, that’s not a good thing. I think it’s worth trying. He needs to win some tough matches. I don’t think he needs to panic and feel like he needs to change everything. He’s still a great player and always will be. Just to try something a few weeks here would be fine.”

Sampras added that he is curious to see how Federer will perform at the U.S. Open if he plays with the new racquet.

“It’s just mental, gets in your head. Look at [golfer Rory] McIlroy and his clubs. It takes one slight little thing to get you off kilter, and I just hope Roger just, if he sticks with this racquet, can win some tough matches. Once he does that, he will be fine.”

Date: 10th August 2013, Source: Tennis.com

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