RF Tennis News 2018

Alexander Zverev on getting advice from Roger Federer and why he's secure about his Grand Slam prospects


Reem Abulleil - Sport360 |  10 hours ago





Alexander Zverev believes Roger Federer is sharing his knowledge with players like himself, and others from younger generations, to make sure that tennis will be in good hands when the Swiss legend retires.

Zverev received a surprise pep talk from Federer following the 20-year-old German’s five-set loss to Chung Hyeon at the Australian Open in January and it had quite the impact on him.

Ranked No. 5 in the world, Zverev has had lots of success on tour in his young career, winning six titles including two Masters 1000s. But he is yet to translate that success to the Slams, where he hasn’t made a quarter-final yet.

His latest attempt to reach a last-eight stage at a major came in Melbourne, where he fell to Chung in the third round.

A disappointed Zverev was then given some words of advice from Federer, who told him not to put himself under “unnecessary pressure”.

“I didn’t expect it. I was on my bench in the locker room and he’s actually on the other side of the locker room there,” Zverev told reporters in Indian Wells about that day in Melbourne.

“He came up talking to me, I was obviously really upset, I was bummed out, losing a five-set match in a Grand Slam is never easy, especially I knew I was actually playing alright.

“It’s obviously very encouraging. He told me a little bit of a story that the first time he got past the quarters he was already 22 years old. So for me that was very encouraging, he’s the greatest player of all-time and he told me something like that, that he never passed the quarters until he was 22.

“And I’m only 20 years old. In that case I still have time to win a few majors I’m guessing. For me it’s more about winning matches and winning big titles until I get there.”

Zverev grew up idolising Federer, and has beaten the Swiss twice in five career meetings.

At 36, Federer is currently ranked No. 1 in the world and has won 20 Slams.

Zverev believes Federer has a habit of choosing promising youngsters to mentor and is pleased to be one of them.

“We know that he wants to pass on his knowledge to the guys that he thinks are going to be great as well. He’s done it on a few occasions, he’s done it with Grigor [Dimitrov] a little bit when he was a bit younger,” Zverev continued.

“He’s doing it with me a little bit now, he’s trying to talk to me, he’s trying to give me advice, even in practice when he sees something that I should do differently, like play a shot in a different way, he tells me.

“He’s obviously somebody that understands that he is the greatest player of all-time but at the same time he’s not going to play forever and he is somebody that wants to keep tennis in great hands and wants to keep tennis at the highest level it can be and he’s obviously doing everything to help that.”

Zverev is seeded No. 4 at Indian Wells and shares a quarter with No. 8 seed Jack Sock. He has the likes of Juan Martin del Potro, Novak Djokovic and Marin Cilic in his half and begins his campaign against either Mikhail Youzhny or Joao Sousa.

The 20-year-old is feeling confident heading into the tournament, despite tweaking his knee against Del Potro in Acapulco last week, and insists he has zero concerns about his Grand Slam prospects.

Zverev has competed in just 11 Slam main draws so far, with his best appearance being a Wimbledon fourth round last season. He blamed the media for placing pressure on him saying: “I understand that everybody thinks I have to win a Slam within the next three months otherwise it’s a disaster for me.

“But to be very honest, I think the pressure comes a little bit from you guys as well, everybody keeps talking about the Grand Slams in our sport but obviously I’ve won two Masters so I know what it takes to win big tournaments, I know what it takes to beat the best players in the big tournaments.

“I’ve beaten Novak and Roger in those [Masters] finals, so those are not small matches for them either.

“The Grand Slam results will come, I’m not even worried about that. I said in Australia I thought I played well. I lost to a very strong Chung, who played phenomenal.

“He didn’t lose a set to anybody, but me, until he lost in the semi-finals. That is somebody who played with a lot of confidence and great feel. And I still had a chance to win, I had a chance to win that match in four sets.

“So for me it’s about getting through those matches and playing my best and the rest will take care of itself.”

Roger Federer is 36 and No. 1, and may be playing his best tennis of his career

By Douglas Robson - The Washington Post

March 9 at 7:00 AM


Roger Federer, who is atop the world rankings again at age 36, statistically is playing his best tennis ever. (John Thys/AFP/Getty Images)


SAN JOSE — For more than four years, an avalanche of injuries, fierce rivals and the first extended absence of his career kept Roger Federer from the sport’s high point.

Two weeks after re-summiting the Everest of tennis, Federer — at 36½ the oldest man or woman to rank No. 1 — is charting another unprecedented expedition in rarefied air. How long can he carry on at this level?

“The air is thin up there,” said Federer of his age-defying success. “We don’t know.”



Federer waves to fans after a charity exhibition match against
American Jack Sock in San Jose on Monday.
(Jeff Chiu/Associated Press)


What we do know is that the Swiss maestro’s first test comes this week at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif. A five-time winner and last year’s champion, Federer will relinquish the top ranking to No. 2 Rafael Nadal if he fails to reach the semifinals.

For Federer, the thrill of trailblazing, even in his mid-30s, keeps him going. Pushing limits, surprising himself, bending historic bounds of success are part of the fun.


[After Roger: Federer can’t play forever. Once he’s done, what will men’s tennis look like?]    


“It’s interesting to myself,” Federer said Monday over a cappuccino (with regular milk) a few hours before a charity exhibition here that featured Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates. Two weeks had passed since Federer regained the top ranking Feb. 19 after winning his second title of 2018 at Rotterdam.

Federer is aware of team-sport athletes such as Tom Brady, 40, who are pushing past the expected frontiers of decline. He cited NHL standouts Jaromir Jagr, who played this season in his mid-40s, and Chris Chelios, who retired at age 48, as other prime examples.

But tennis, he noted, is an individual sport. Few men have dominated over 30.

Ken Rosewall remains the oldest Grand Slam champion at 37 when he captured the 1972 Australian Open in an era when many top players didn’t make the trek to Australia to compete. Andre Agassi’s late-career revival earned him the No. 1 ranking at age 33. Jimmy Connors memorably reached the 1991 U.S. Open semifinals at age 39.

“It’s not frequent,” said Federer, a father of four. “You sort of take it — I don’t want to say a tournament at a time — but like one year at a time instead of thinking, ‘Okay, Tokyo Olympics here I come.’ The way hasn’t been paved for you.”

Federer, the ATP’s all-time leader in weeks at No. 1 (306 as of March 12) trusted that he could win big titles again, though two years ago another climb to the top seemed far-fetched.

“That, to me, was not realistic at the time,” he said.

But once it came back into play after he defended his title at this year’s Australian Open, Federer altered his schedule to chase the No. 1 ranking in Rotterdam. It was his most satisfying trip to the peak.

“For me it was like coming full circle with my team, with my fans, with everybody,” he said.

Federer expects to play another year, likely two, but won’t look beyond that. His health and family come first.

That plan looked shaky before his autumnal surge.

From late 2012 to the end of 2016, Federer failed to win a Grand Slam title — the longest drought since his first major title in 2003. He took an extended break the second half of 2016 to rest his surgically repaired left knee, which he had injured while bathing his twin daughters. He went titleless that same year and fell outside the top 10 for first time in a decade, slipping to No. 17.



Federer and his wife Mirka holding their twin girls at their home near Zurich in August 2009. (Family Photo/AFP/Getty Images)


With the support of his coaches Ivan Ljubicic and Severin Luthi, and his longtime physical therapist Pierre Paganini, Federer never veered from his course or contemplated retirement. He reflected on the overall picture, “but not like a panic,” he said.

“It was never — ‘What do you guys think? Is this over?’ I never had that. I felt I was too close to winning. I was too close to the top. I was too close to still beating the best.”

Since returning at the 2017 Australian Open, Federer is 64-5 with nine ATP titles. He added three Grand Slam crowns in the past 15 months — back-to-back wins in Melbourne and his record eighth Wimbledon last July.

Federer credits his fluid, efficient style of play, along with his team’s obsessive planning for his continued success, even as it gets harder to make quick adjustments like he did at Rotterdam last month. He’s also cut back his practice time, preferring quality over quantity. “It’s a well-oiled machine,” he said.

Don’t discount love of the game, either, said Swiss Davis Cup captain Luthi, who has known his countryman since he was 13 years old. “For me it’s surprising how much passion he still has,” Luthi said.

While the demographics of tennis have been trending older, younger rivals such as Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray — all of whom have spent time at No. 1 in recent years — have been hobbled or sidelined as they’ve approached or passed their third decade. Only 12-time major winner Djokovic, 30, is entered at Indian Wells.

And though he keeps moving the goal line of all-time major titles — Federer owns 20, Nadal is second with 16 — he doesn’t feel his lead is safe.

“No, not at all,” he said. “I just feel like today we’re all so good on clay, grass, and hard courts, if you get on a roll you can rack up some titles. It’s not as safe as it was in, say, the 1980s.”

Federer’s 2018 statistics support the perception he is playing better than ever — or at least as well as when he ruled the sport a decade ago.

After a 12-0 start, his winning percentage on first-serve points (82 percent), second serve points (63 percent), and service games won (95 percent) are all at career highs.

Jack Sock, the top-ranked American at No. 10, said Federer uses his speed, experience and accuracy to smothering effect, while rarely failing to protect his own serve.

“He’s not human,” said Sock, who has yet to take a set off Federer in four meetings.

Sock, 25, said Federer’s example has stretched the notion of career trajectory for a whole generation of players. “Now when you’re 30, 31, you can say, ‘Maybe I have some of my best tennis ahead of me,’ ” he said.

Despite innumerable records, the most lasting impression Federer could leave tennis is sustained excellence.

Consider that the 14-plus years between when he first rose to No. 1 and his most recent stint is the biggest gap in history. The five-plus years between his most recent stay at No. 1 in 2012 is also the longest lull.

Longevity is something he’ll be “very proud of” when he retires, Federer said. Especially because he was a hotheaded junior and inconsistent young professional. He wondered if he would harness his talent.

“I always thought it was going to be hard for me to achieve that because I was up and down,” he said. “From 17 to 22, it was tough for me to stay focused on a daily basis.”

With his resurgence, two seemingly untouchable men’s marks — Connors’s 1,256 match wins and 109 titles — are within striking distance. Federer owns 1,144 match victories and 97 titles.

Federer, typically, is not aiming for those milestones. He can’t think that far ahead. But if his body holds up and he plays at two or three more years, both are achievable.

Meantime, triple-digit tournament wins is in his crosshairs.

“I just think it would be so cool to get to 100 titles,” he said. “I never thought that was something I could do.”

And why not? Even in thin air, Federer keeps breathing easy as he pioneers new paths of possible.

   Federer cruises past Krajinovic at Wells

13 March 2018



Roger Federer © Getty Images


World No 1 Roger Federer needed less than an hour to dispatch Filip Krajinovic at the BNP Paribas Open in California on Monday, mixing overpowering serves and pinpoint groundstrokes to advance to the fourth round of the tournament.

Playing for a third consecutive day due to weather delays in Indian Wells, the 36-year-old Swiss showed no sign of wear en route to a 6-2 6-1 thrashing of the Serbian in the pair's first ever meeting.

Federer, who had looked slightly off his game in his rain-disrupted third round match against Federico Delbonis, was his dominant self on Monday, winning 89 percent of his first service points while cracking six aces to just one double fault.

Krajinovic had no answer for Federer's serve or relentless return game and ended up winning just 31 of the match's 93 points.

With rivals Rafael Nadal, Stanislas Wawrinka and Andy Murray electing not to enter the tournament, and Novak Djokovic and Kei Nishikori both eliminated, the path appears clear for the Swiss to win a record sixth Indian Wells title.

Despite the promising outlook, Federer insisted he was taking it one match at a time.

"You can't really look ahead to semifinals, finals and speculate about who you could play," he told reporters.

"I think that would be a mistake. I am on a good run right now and I want to maintain that. I have to stay sharp."

Next up for Federer is a meeting on Wednesday with France's Jeremy Chardy, who upset his countryman Adrian Mannarino earlier on Monday.

Federer Stays Perfect, Back in Semis





  by Richard Osborn - Mar. 15 2018


Queried about his immaculate run of 2018, an age-defying streak that includes his record 20^th major title at the Australian Open and a No. 1-clinching win in Rotterdam, Roger Federer cautioned, “Don’t jinx it.”

Superstitions be damned, the top-seeded Swiss moved ever closer to a record sixth title at the BNP Paribas Open on Thursday, clinching a semifinal berth with a 7-5, 6-1 victory over begoggled 21-year-old South Korean Hyeon Chung. With the win, Federer matched the best start of his career, surging to 16-0 on the year for the first time since 2006.

Chung turned 10 that year, one that saw Federer finish at 92-5 and win three of four Slams. A dozen years later he stood on the other side of the net from the consensus GOAT, a promising young #NextGen riser appearing in the first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 quarterfinal of his career.





Chung, ranked a career-high No. 26, made his 36-year-old opponent work for it, but serving to stay in the opening set at 5-6, 15-40, he would surrender a break with a wide forehand to fall behind.

“I think I was getting my rhythm back from the baseline because I think I lost it in the breezy conditions,” said Federer. “Chung was really starting to get his range. I was downwind, so I think that helped to break him. It was also important to hold in the first game of the second set. I think maybe that was the key, those 10 or 15 minutes of the match.”

Breaks in the second and sixth games of the second set put the match out of reach for good. Chung did manage to save a match point with Federer serving at 5-1, 40-30, but the Swiss eventually closed it out in one hour, 21 minutes with his 12^th ace of the night.

“It was a tough match,” said Federer. “Chung’s a great player. He’s a great returner, so I knew I had my work cut out for me.”

Federer had seen Chung before. They faced each other in January in the Australian Open semis, however Chung was forced to retire from that match with severe foot blisters trailing 6-1, 5-2.

As it turns out, Federer, Pete Sampras and Rod Laver were all in Stadium 1 on Thursday night. It’s not often that you gather a collective 45 Slam titles in the same building, let alone the same area code.

“It’s nice to see Pete in the building. The same with Rod,” said Federer. “Seeing the legends of the game coming out — it’s a wonderful feeling for us.”

Federer’s semifinal opponent will be Croat Borna Coric, who advanced with a three-set upset of No. 7 seed Kevin Anderson.

“He’s a very steady baseliner, similar to Chung, similar age, the future of tennis,” observed Federer, who topped the 21-year-old in their only head-to-head in 2015 in the Dubai semis. “A great mover as well. He’s got all the confidence in the world right now, so it’s going to be a tough one.”

Careful when pulling ace Roger Federer out of the ATP's house of cards




The 36-year-old Roger Federer, who won his 20th Grand Slam when he captured the Australian Open in January, is off to one of his strongest career starts and is now 15-0 in 2018. Photo by John Cordes/Icon Sportswire


  Peter Bodo - ESPN STREAK | 16 March 2018


The desert at Indian Wells has seemed strangely deserted this past week without a full complement of ATP stars.

Once the happy hunting grounds for the vaunted Big Four and honorary associate Stan Wawrinka, Indian Wells -- often described as the game's "fifth Grand Slam" -- is conspicuously lacking its customary star power.

"There's a different vibe when all those guys are not around," Federer confessed during a news conference earlier this week. When asked if he missed his compatriots -- or felt delighted that he wouldn't have to face any of them, he replied, "A little bit of both."

Who can blame him? Federer, now ranked No. 1, may be sentimental, but he's not crazy. A jolly fellow whose only guilty pleasure is winning titles at an age when many of his peers are contemplating second-career opportunities, the absence of four heroes represents opportunity writ large. That MIA quartet of Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Wawrinka has accumulated a grand total of 34 major titles thus far, basically scooping anything Federer left unclaimed.

But there's more to this "vibe" than the afflictions that have kept Federer's main rivals sidelined, or rendered them ineffective (Nadal: bad leg; Djokovic: elbow surgery; Murray: hip surgery; Wawrinka, knee surgery).

The men's status quo is beginning to resemble a house of cards: Pull Federer out and the entire structure just might collapse. The Swiss icon's sheer brilliance has masked a growing sense that the ATP is either on the verge of parity, with nobody capable of stepping up to be the new sheriff in town, or that the long-predicted transition to a fresh new crop of young stars is in full swing. "I have the feeling that change is starting to happen," Tennis Channel analyst Leif Shiras told me. "Guys who used to be outside the top tier are moving up and thinking, 'I like this, it's wide open, time to make hay while the sun is shining.' "




Shiras was referring to players like Kevin Anderson, David Goffin, Pablo Carreno Busta and other veterans. But the under-21 players loosely traveling under the #NextGenATP banner are proving allergic to the hay their more seasoned peers are making.

"The competitive friction is good for the up-and-comers," Shiras added. "It gives them a realistic sense of what it takes to get to those next levels."

High seeds of all ages have suffered a rough fate at Indian Wells. Number 2 Marin Cilic (a finalist in two of the last three majors) was knocked out by clever German veteran, Philipp Kohlschreiber, while No 3 Grigor Dimitrov fell in the second round (he had a first-round bye) to slugging Fernando Verdasco.

Alexander Zverev and Dominic Thiem (seeded 4 and 5 respectively), are among the select group of younger players who appear on the cusp of taking over at the top. But they also stumbled out, while Nick Kyrgios, 22, withdrew with yet another injury, this time a bad elbow. Thus, Federer's dominance may be the only thing keeping the ATP Tour from becoming a free-for-all, much like the WTA Tour was after Serena took a break.

"I don't understand how Federer does it," Jimmy Arias, once a top five player and now a coach and analyst, told me. "He's playing the best tennis of his life at the age of 36. But after that, it's really up for grabs. I don't like the way the other big guys have been rushed out of the game. I'd like to see the young guys beat them on the court or else they won't get full credit when they do take over."

At the moment, though, the young guys have their hands full trying to out-compete the Top 20-grade players who, Arias noted, are aware that for the first time in a long time at least one spot in any big final is up for grabs.

The other spot seems to be permanently reserved for you know who.  

St. Patty’s Day Drama: Federer Survives Upset Bid



Saturday, March 17, 2018 - Roger Federer plays Borna Coric in the Semifinal of the BNP Paribas Open in Stadium 1 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, California. (Michael Cummo/BNP Paribas Open)


  by Richard Osborn - BNP Paribas Open | 17 March 2018


Defending champion Roger Federer will play for a record sixth BNP Paribas Open title on Sunday after turning back an inspired upset bid from 21-year-old Borna Coric to score a 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 victory.

Down a set and a break at 7-5, 4-2, the 36-year-old Swiss roared back in dramatic fashion to advance, and will now face Juan Martin del Potro in Sunday’s final.

The tricenarian is off to the best start of his career at 17-0, having eclipsed his opening run of 2006, a year that saw the Swiss finish at 92-5. He is into the final in Indian Wells for the fourth straight time, having missed the event in 2016.



The first break-point opportunity of the match didn’t surface until the 11th game of the opening set. Federer would fight off the first serving at 5-all, 30-40 with a 127 mph serve out wide, but his opponent made good on the second when Federer netted a forehand volley. Until then, the Swiss hadn’t dropped a set in reaching his 11th semifinal in 17 appearances.




A zoning Coric didn’t take his foot off the proverbial pedal, opening the second set with another break, a crosscourt forehand with Federer serving at 30-40 giving him the early 1-0 edge. Facing a triple break point at 2-1, the former #NextGen poster boy erased all three chances, five unanswered points giving him the clutch hold. However, with a partisan Stadium 1 lifting him, Federer would bring the set back on serve four games later with his first break of the afternoon (he was 5-for-11 overall).

It was the just spark he so desperately needed. Down 7-5, 4-2, the five-time champion would send the match to a third set.





Prior to the match, Federer said it would be interesting to see what kind of role the elements would play. In unseasonably cool conditions, he asked, would his opponent be the wind or Borna Coric? In the end, it was the veteran who handled the on-court breezes the best. When it really counted, it was vintage Federer. They would twice trade breaks in the final set, but Federer would reel off the final 11 points of the match to break Coric at love.

Coric, appearing in his first-ever ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semifinal, will jump from No. 49 to No. 36 with the final-four result. He’s the first unseeded semifinalist since Del Potro in 2011 and the first Croat in the semis since Federer’s coach, Ivan Ljubicic in 2010.



Delpo Joins Federer in Final

Del Potro didn’t have to work quite as hard as Federer in his semifinal against Milos Raonic, rolling past the Canadian in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3, in just over an hour for his 400th career win. The 6-foot-6 Argentine returns to the BNP Paribas Open final for the first time since 2013, when he fell to Rafael Nadal in the title match, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. He is seeking his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title.

Facing one of the tour’s most powerful servers in Raonic, it was del Potro who would have the best day from the service stripe. The 29-year-old would win 24-of-27 (89 percent) of his first-serve points, and never faced a break point. But it was his return game that del Potro says made the difference.

“I think I was lucky in both sets. Milos has a great serve,” said del Potro, who moved ahead in both sets with early breaks. “But I was very focused on my return game. I broke many times [4-of-5], and that was the key of the match.”

In Federer, del Potro faces an opponent he is more than familiar with, and one to which he shows the utmost respect. It was the Swiss whom del Potro would shock in in five sets in the 2009 US Open final. He again topped Federer at the US Open last year in the quarterfinals, 7-5, 3-6, 7-6(8), 6-4, but trails by a wide margin in FedEx ATP Head2Heads, 6-18.