RF Tennis News 2021

Forbes

Roger Federer Expected To Return At Doha In March: Report

Switzerland's Roger Federer plays a return to Spain's Rafael Nadal during their tennis match at 'The Match in Africa' in Cape Town on February 7, 2020. (Photo by RODGER BOSCH/AFP via Getty Images)

Adam Zagoria, Contributor - Forbes
Jan 20, 2021

Roger Federer is expected to make his much-anticipated return at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha which runs March 8-13, according to Richard Krajicek.

"As far as I know, Roger will play in Doha, the week after Rotterdam. But if he is fit and ready to play, we will hear from him," said Krajicek, a former top player who is now the tournament director in Rotterdam, which runs March 1-7.

Federer, 39, trains in Dubai, which is only 235 miles from Doha, which is played on outdoor hardcourts.

Krajicek announced world No. 2 Rafael Nadal as the top star in Rotterdam, but would like to add Federer to the field as well. Federer is a three-time Rotterdam champion, winning the first title in 2005 and capturing it most recently in 2018.

Federer, whose 20 career Grand Slams are now tied with Nadal for tops among men, announced last month he was withdrawing from the rescheduled Australian Open due to two surgeries on his right knee in 2020.

“I will start discussions this coming week for tournaments that begin in late February and then start to build a schedule for the rest of the year,” his agent Tony Godsick and CEO of their management company, TEAM8, told The Associated Press via email.

Federer hasn’t played an ATP event since losing to Novak Djokovic in the semifinals of last year’s Australian Open. He last played when he beat Nadal in a charity match in South Africa in February.

He then underwent arthroscopic right knee surgery in February and had a follow-up procedure in June. At that point, he announced he wouldn’t play against until 2021.

LWOS

What a Roger Federer Comeback in Doha Could Mean

Roger Federer in action at the 2020 Australian Open. Photo: Getty Images

By: Alex Nulliah | LWOS lastwordonsports.com
January 25, 2021

There have been reports this week that Roger Federer will make his return to action in Doha, with Richard Krajicek, tournament director at the Rotterdam Open, suggesting that Federer could play at the ATP 250 Qatar Open, which runs from 8th to 13th March.

Krajicek stated – ‘I think I know he will play in Doha, the week after Rotterdam. But if he’s fit and ready to play, we’ll hear from him’. The Swiss has not played a tour-level match since the Australian Open after undergoing knee surgery, but a potential Doha return could well be a good move for the Swiss.

Advantageous conditions

Historically, the courts at the Qatar Open have been amongst the fastest on the ATP Tour and Federer’s attacking game is well-suited to these conditions. A quick court surface enables him to go for winners from the baseline early in rallies, and by keeping the points short, Federer can preserve his physical fitness and deny opponents rhythm. This should allow him to play at a high level throughout the tournament and following events.

Unsurprisingly, Federer’s success on faster courts has been extensive. Quicker conditions also help him to play with more tactical variation, particularly by catching players off-guard by coming forward and finishing points at the net. The faster court speeds reduce the time for opponents to react to his volley, making it harder for them to attempt a passing shot and neutralise Federer’s aggressive move forward.

A faster court also aids his serve, increasingly the bedrock of his game, with the speed of the court combined with Federer’s remarkable placement often guaranteeing plenty of aces and some very short service games from the Swiss star.

Professional tennis players have to contend with varied and often intense weather conditions across the world. But Federer should feel at home in the Doha heat as he maintains a training base in Dubai. Indeed, Federer was seen training there last month and has been practising in Dubai for over a decade. With Doha and Dubai separated by less than 240 miles across the Persian Gulf, playing in Doha should give Federer the chance to settle back into the tour among familiar conditions he can cope well with.

Match-experience for further titles

Playing in Doha could be the perfect choice to set Federer up for the remainder of the season. Training is of course useful, but players require match experience  to give them the best chance at having deep runs in tournaments. For one thing, without matches, players aren’t exposed to the mental pressures of competition. Retaining a level of competitiveness, or fighting off nerves, becomes a harder task when prize money, ranking points and titles aren’t up for grabs.

But by playing a relatively small tournament, Federer will give himself the chance to ease back into the competitive mindset, which should, in the long run, give him the best chance to win key titles down the line. There are plenty of important tournaments just around the corner, including his favoured Dubai Tennis Championships, an ATP 500 tournament, and the Miami Open, set to be the first Masters 1000 event of the year. Both are scheduled to be played in the same month as Doha.

Federer’s potential Doha entry seems to be good news for his game and for tennis. Making a comeback in heat that he’s trained for and on a court that suits his aggressive style should give Federer a welcome boost. And getting matches under his belt should also increase his chances of winning significant titles down the line, making the remainder of the 2021 season a very exciting prospect.

Federer confirms Doha return, then targets clay, Wimbledon and Olympics

Roger Federer is set to make his long-awaited comeback from injury in Doha on March 8. The 20-time Grand Slam champion has been out of action for over a year, but has confirmed he will also play on clay before looking to Wimbledon and the Olympics. Is this Federer's farewell tour? And can he win again before he retires?


Roger Federer - Image credit: Getty Images

By James Walker-Roberts - Eurosport  
February 2, 2021

Roger Federer has confirmed he will make his return next month in Doha and will then play on clay before his main goals of Halle, Wimbledon, the Olympics and the US Open.

The 20-time Grand Slam champion has been out of action for a year after undergoing two knee operations.

He is not playing at the Australian Open - which begins on February 8 - for the first time in 23 years and says the decision “hurt”, but he needed more time.

"I thought long and hard about when and where to come back,” he told SRF. “Australia was still a bit too early because of my knee. That hurts; it's one of the places where I like to play the most.”

Instead of Melbourne, Federer will make his comeback at the ATP 250 in Doha starting on March 8.

"I wanted to make my comeback at a smaller tournament, so as not to be fully in the spotlight, and where the stress is also a little less,” said Federer, who has won the tournament three times.

"I'm not at 100 per cent, but close to there, that‘s why I‘m confident to come back. I feel strong, better than in November and December, when there were a lot more insecurities. I do my sprints, play the sets, I haven’t had any setbacks over the last six months and that‘s very positive."

Clay return

After Doha there is a chance Federer will stay in the Middle East to play in the ATP 500 in Dubai, which begins on March 15. Then there’s the first ATP Masters event of the season in Miami on March 24.

He said: "Depending on how things go in Doha, I'll play another tournament. Otherwise I'll go back to an additional training block with tennis and fitness, and then I'll try to play on clay again.


The decision to return to clay is somewhat surprising given Federer has only played on the surface for one of the last four years. Matches on clay also tend to be more physical and longer, not necessarily what 39-year-old Federer is looking for at this stage of his career.


Will this be Roger Federer's final year at the French Open? - Image credit: Getty Images

And it’s clear from his comments that this comeback is going to be led by his body.

He says he does not want to “pathologically stay on the tour” to the detriment of his health and future activities with his wife Mirka and their four children.

"I won't play tournaments just because. If the body doesn’t work, I'll stop," he said.

"I want to be able to go skiing with the children and with Mirka. Or go hiking, play basketball or start ice hockey - I still have so many dreams. For that I need a good body and I don’t want to hit it against the wall."

Is this a farewell tour?

Halle. Wimbledon. The Olympics. The US Open.

At 39 – 40 by the time the US Open rolls around – will this be the last time that Federer plays four of his favourite tournaments?

If so, he will be carefully managing his schedule to ensure he is in the best possible condition for each of them.

Halle is set to take place on June 14, with Wimbledon on June 28, the Olympics in Tokyo on July 27 and then the US Open on August 30.

After going through a year of rehab, Federer will be eager to play at all four events, but it will be fascinating to see how fit he is by the summer and whether he can compete with the best on tour.

"I like to play tennis for life. In the last few months I have given a lot in rehab, in the conditioning area. I had to go to the bottom in the last few months, but I always enjoyed it and had a great team around me. Now is the time to try again.

"I want to celebrate great victories again. And for that I am ready to go the long, hard road."

He also admitted he followed the sport more than he thought he would while away from the court.

"I actually thought that I would not follow the sport very much and would be more busy with my children and my rehab. I was surprised that I kept checking results and watching matches. And normally I don't do that at all if I don't take part in a tournament."

Analysis – Enjoy this year of Federer

This may not be Roger Federer’s final year on tour – but it seems to be heading that way.

His talk of all the focus being on Halle, Wimbledon, the Olympics, and the US Open, plus a potential farewell to Roland Garros, suggests 2021 might be it for the 20-time Grand Slam champion.

If it is goodbye then hopefully he goes out on a high.

He appears to have given himself a good chance of that after taking plenty of time off and not rushing his comeback at the Australian Open. However, only time will tell how his body will react, and despite his claim that he is returning in Doha where he won’t be “fully in the spotlight”, all eyes will be on him to see how he performs.

In an unpredictable year there’s a chance Federer could do something special, but he needs his body to comply.


Another read from the same author: After a year out, how can Federer win again?

A Car Break In, A 'Terrible Mistake' And Federer's First Title

20 years ago today, Roger Federer captured his first ATP Tour Title in Milan

Dave Seminara - ATPTour
February 4, 2021

Twenty years ago — when Rafael Nadal was just 14, and 21-year-old Marat Safin sat atop the FedEx ATP Rankings — a baby-faced 19-year-old from Switzerland with a ponytail and a poetic one-handed backhand won his first ATP Tour title. Roger Federer’s celebration after beating Julien Boutter at the Milan Indoors 20 years ago this week was muted, almost as if he knew it was only the start of bigger things to come.


102 titles, 20 majors and more than $100 million in prize money later, it’s safe to say that things did get a bit easier for the man who’s evolved into one of the world’s most celebrated and beloved athletes. But at the time, he had a more pedestrian concern to deal with: figuring out how to get back home after the match. According to René Stauffer’s excellent biography, Roger Federer: Quest for Perfection, Robert Federer, Roger’s dad, locked the keys in the car. He had to smash the window out so they could drive back to Switzerland.

Perhaps the smashing of the window foreshadowed the records his son would break, but in any case, many were surprised that it took Federer as long as it did to capture that first title. He was a top junior, having won Junior Wimbledon and the prestigious Orange Bowl tournament in Miami in 1998. After a 13-17 start on the ATP Tour in ’99, he won bronze at the Olympics in Sydney, where he and Mirka Vavrinec became a couple, and made it to the final of the Swiss Indoors Basel in his hometown.

He was clearly a future star, but no one was sure when that future would arrive.

“I didn't come in [to the match] thinking I was going to win the title, but I knew I was playing well indoors,” Federer said of that first title in 2001.

He recalled near misses in 2000, losing in a third-set tie-break to Marc Rosset in the final of what’s now called the Open 13 Provence in Marseille and a tough five-setter to Thomas Enqvist in the final of the Swiss Indoors Basel.

“I played amazing against Enqvist and ended up losing … so I thought, ‘Oh, God here we go. I'm never going to win a tournament,’" Federer said. "And then when I won Milan, obviously I was extremely relieved and just very happy. I played great. It was a big moment for me.”

 

Boutter came into the match feeling poised to claim his first title as well. He beat Federer in their only prior match, in a Challenger event in Grenoble two years before. “He was already considered the future Pete Sampras, but at that time he was still untested and quite nervous on the court,” Boutter said in a January interview with ATPTour.com. “I was confident… it could have been my final.”

Federer beat Goran Ivanisevic and Yevgeny Kafelnikov to make it to the final against Boutter, who won fans a year later at the Australian Open when an opponent in a doubles match inadvertently hit and killed a bird that had been chasing a moth on court. Boutter rushed over to see if he could save it, but when he saw it was too late, he got down on his knees, crossed himself and gave the bird, a house martin, dignified last rites.

“I really wanted to win my first ATP title. That was a big week for me... I felt like I had pressure, because maybe I went into that final as a little bit of a favourite,” Federer recalled. “But it was fast indoors and Boutter was a big server, so you never knew what was going to happen.”

Boutter, a Frenchman then 26 and ranked No. 67, was in a far less compassionate mood against Federer in Milan that day. He went up a break on the Swiss teen in the first set and Roger, who used to be a lot more McEnroe-esque on court as a teen, threw his racquet in frustration. Boutter sensed an opening.

Federer, looking sharp with his ponytail and a red and white kit befitting his Swiss heritage, stormed back to take the first set, 6-4, but fell behind again in the second set and lost it in a tie-break. Then the chair umpire made what Boutter still considers a “terrible mistake”. Federer should have served first in the third set but instead the chair umpire got mixed up and told Boutter it was his serve. If a familiar feeling of dread had taken root somewhere inside young Federer’s gut, he never showed it, breaking Boutter in that first service game and hanging on for a 6-4, 6-7(7), 6-4 win.

It took Federer nearly another year to win another title — in Sydney the following January — and later in 2002 he cracked the Top 10 for the first time. The next year, he was off to the races, going 78-17 with seven titles, including Wimbledon. The Milan Indoors became the Breil Milano in 2003, the Indesit ATP Milan Indoor the next year and the Internazionali di Lombardia in 2005, the tournament’s final season. While the event is gone, it’s clearly not forgotten. Milan now hosts the Next Gen ATP Finals.

The memory of losing to Federer remains vivid for Boutter, who retired in 2004 and is now the tournament director and co-owner of the Moselle Open, an ATP 250 event in Metz, France that’s scheduled to take place after the US Open. Ivan Ljubicic, Federer’s coach, told him two years ago that he and Roger had watched their Milan match on tape recently. Then Boutter bumped into Federer, who was still annoyed that he had lost to him back in Grenoble in 1999.

“He said that he never should have lost that match,” Boutter recalls.

Boutter says that he knew Federer would be a great player, but had no idea he’d win 102 more titles and become one of the all-time greats. He thinks the Milan story could have been different if he hadn’t lost serve in that third set when it should have been Federer’s service game after he had dropped the tie-break.

“I told Roger ‘Imagine if I had won that match, our careers would be switched’,” said Boutter, who reached a career high of No. 46 in the FedEx ATP Rankings in 2002. “He laughed and said ‘Yeah probably.’"  

Federer admitted that he felt relief rather than joy and happiness — which kicked in 24 hours later — after triumphing in Milan. The Swiss remembers what he said to himself in the moment.

“At least I have one!”