RF Schedule 2017

This is Roger's current confirmed schedule for 2017, as published on his website.  

In recent interviews, Roger mentioned that he hasn't decided how many tournaments he will play on clay. This will depend on how he feels after the first few months of his come back. He did state, however, that comes the green season, he will play Halle and Wimbledon.

---

On April 10, 2017, Roger Federer and Andy Murray will face off against each other in the Zurich Hallenstadion to raise money for the Roger Federer Foundation.

"The Match for Africa 3", the third charity tennis event for the Roger Federer Foundation, will now be held on Monday, April 10, 2017, and not November 22, 2016, as originally planned. Roger Federer's opponent in the Zurich Hallenstadion will be none other than the three-time Grand Slam champion and two-time Olympic gold medallist Andy Murray.

«I am extremely happy that Andy – one of the best tennis players in the world – immediately agreed to come to Zurich to help raise money for my foundation. However, I'm even happier that I'll finally get to play in front of my fans again next spring,» said Roger.

---

Event program

Monday, 10th April 2017, 8.00pm

6.00pm                Door opening foyer
7.00pm                Door opening Arena
7.30pm                Start pre-show
8.00pm                Start main act "The Match for Africa 3"
approx. 10.30pm  End of show

---

On November 15, 2016, Roger announced his third Match for Africa with this 'dorky' video...

All tickets have long been sold, but the video is still worth seeing!    

I have to say Rog aces the Kilt look. With those legs, how no?

Andy Murray - ROGER FEDERER GLASGOW 7 November 2017

And to return the favour, ROG and Andy will be meeting again in Glasgow !!

As expected, it looks like Roger will not be in Monte-Carlo this year...

ATP - The bests in Monte-Carlo except for Federer and Nishikori

Based on an article published by TennisActu yesterday (in French).

Eight of the top ten players in the world are on the entry list for Monte Carlo, first clay court Masters 1000, to be held from April 16 to 23. Not surprisingly, neither Kei Nishikori nor Roger Federer have planned to come and spoil their socks on the Rock. Obviously, Zeljko Franulovic, the tournament director, will keep a wild-card in his back pocket for the Swiss, but when decrypting Federer's 'earthy' plan, his chances of coming to the Côte d'Azur are nil.

It should be noted that Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, semi-finalist last year, is committed but his participation will depend on the arrival of his first child. As for Gaël Monfils, finalist last year, his presence is very uncertain after the medical release published last night. It should also be noted that Monaco is not part of Juan Martin Del Potro's plans. Too bad for the show!

I was originally writing this in the Miami final match thread since there was some discussion there but then remembered this thread and thought this was a much better fit going forward.  This was written BEFORE the transcript for the presser was released and is based upon my own thoughts and the quotes from various articles describing the finals.

There has been a lot of fan discussion, some here, some elsewhere about Roger's decision not to play any clay tournaments except for RG and even that is not set in stone.  Some felt that he should play a clay masters 1000 ahead of time to prepare for RG and others were worried about the loss of momentum, particularly if he doesn't play RG either.

Roger has suggested that he will probably only play RG, if that, and that he will only begin to practise on clay 2 weeks before - in other words at the start of Rome.  So much for playing Rome, much less Madrid!!  To suggest that he play one of the other masters 1000 in addition to or instead of RG is really dreaming.  As Roger has said, he is not 24 anymore, and while playing like a 24 year old, he is doing that in a 35 year old body!!!

He is not dropping out of tennis in these 2 months "off" but is taking time for some R&R&R and then rebuilding – it takes longer at 35 and he no longer has only Mirka in the equation.  He has 4 young children who also need his time and attention and upon whom he dotes.  He has said that he will be doing nothing tenniswise until Match for Africa, if I understand some of what has been written.  He will then continue to practise on hard courts until 2 weeks before RG when he will switch his practise to clay.

In other words, he feels he needs 2 weeks to get ready for clay.  If he plays any other tournament other than RG, that shortens that long block of time considerably – 8 weeks continual time off is not equivalent to 5 weeks if he plays Rome for example (I feel that Madrid is off the table – too early, the boys’ birthday is then and he does not want to miss it – loss to Kyrgios on that date still rankles!! – and it breaks the time off into 2 chunks, neither one of which is long enough)  Play Rome and you have vacation, HC practise for less than a week if the feeling is that 2 weeks on clay is required to make a go of it.  In other words, if he wants to practise on HC, then he isn’t getting the time.  

What I think is getting lost in some of the scheduling discussion is that the IW/Miami back to back tournament block is unique.  Both are running like majors in terms of time off.  All of the rest of the masters 1000, including both Madrid and Rome mean playing consecutive days.  Personally, I felt that part of Roger’s success at both IW and Miami came from the fact that there were very few back to back days.  His recovery time is longer.  While the majors do mean best of 5, they also mean days off in between and if he can only play three sets in the early rounds, then he will be conserving energy, not just for the rest of the tournament, but also for the rest of the year.  He has a chance to refill the well so to speak, between matches.  He cannot do that in regular masters 1000 and that can lead to more accumulated fatigue.

In hindsight, it would also seem that including Miami, when he has in the past, taken it off in order to get a break before the European clay and grass seasons, shows that his priority is now HC over clay. It is very shortsighted to play Miami AND a full clay and grass schedule.  He recognizes, and has for a while, that playing Miami AND clay does not give him the big break he needs.  Once clay starts, the race is on to the end of the year - very tough to carve another significant block of time out.  So either clay is important or HC is.  Either leave Miami out and pursue clay or play Miami and leave out most/all of the clay.  In earlier years, he has chosen the former but this year he has chosen the latter.

Roger has a VERY heavy schedule leading from RG, Stuttgart, Halle, week off, Wimbledon.  In essence, RG is his leadup tournament for grass!! – Rather than looking for a clay tournament to get ready for RG, he may be looking at RG for some match practise/match toughness prior to the grass - the most important part of the year.  In the same breath, he mentions the North American HC which follows and then indoor and now WTF which has come into play as well – all of these he has prioritized over clay – He recognizes his body and family.  He can no longer do it all.  He knows it, and is choosing a schedule which matches ALL of his goals.  It will be interesting to read the presser when it becomes available because this quote, from the NYT article by Stephanie Myles says it all.

As for Federer, he said he was looking to be happy in all parts of his life and to stay healthy, even if that means pacing himself and taking a strategic break at times.
“I would rather stay take a step back and then really come back with a lot of energy and happiness,” Federer said. “Then I can share that with everybody. Otherwise you’ll see me here, and you will see that all I want to do is get out of here.”
He added, “I don’t want to be that guy. I really don’t.”

In other words, he is really tired now - physically yes, but also mentally and emotionally.  He never dreamed he would have so much success, played so many matches and he recognizes it is time for a break.  A break that restores him physically yes, but also gives him back some of that family time that he had in his 6 month hiatus.  I think he really, really enjoyed that and now wants to combine his passion for the sport with the other dimensions in a life well-lived.  Whether he can have his cake and eat it too remains to be seen, but he is going to try.  #1 is NOT the goal - if he gets it while pursuing his stated goals, great - winning tournaments while staying healthy, not just for tennis, but for the rest of his life, competing with joy in the sport, and giving his wife and his children the best of himself seem to be the motivation now.

If he is going to be true to all of those goals, he has decided upon an 8 week break, potentially 10 if he skips RG, now.  Withing that context, this is a schedule which makes sense.

Really great post, Rufus1! You make a lot of sense, thanks!

So this is what he was up to at Miami behind the scenes this year ;-)     http://www.match-for-africa-seattle.com/

Christopher Clarey‏ @christophclarey
Federer, with Bill Gates's help, has set up charity exhibition in 17,459-seat KeyArena in Seattle on April 29th vs John Isner



Doubles Match
Bill Gates and Roger Federer
vs.
John Isner and his celebrity partner to be determined
- one set -

Singles Match
Roger Federer vs John Isner
- best of three sets -

Tickets for Match for Africa 4 – Seattle are available THURSDAY 6 APRIL, at 9 a.m. PDT with net proceeds benefiting the Roger Federer Charitable Fund/Roger Federer Foundation
Ticket Information
Tickets can be purchased at the KeyArena Box Office, Ticketmaster.com, or charge by phone toll free at (800) 745-3000. All tickets subject to applicable service charges and fees.
https://www.keyarena.com/events/detail/match-for-africa


PRESS RELEASE:

Here is the video which Roger tweeted

Some fans have no respect... pic.twitter.com/FQkSIr3xnh

— Roger Federer (@rogerfederer) April 4, 2017

Would this not have been shot at IW rather than Miami though?  Bill Gates owns a home in the area I think and was regularly seen at the tournament.

^^Yes Rufus1, it's late here and I'd been busy pulling this stuff together for my post, I just found it surprising tbh.

Roger's tour tracker on his site has been updated with RG!

That's good news! He was pretty positive about playing RG in his Miami interview.

And Roger has also officially withdrawn from Madrid and Rome. His name has been crossed off those lists.

I guess Roger figures he can go into RG without any matches and take his chances. It's not like he has anything to lose (other than the title ). He probably figures his chances aren't great there. I'm sure he knows what he's doing. Wimbledon is his goal!

Actually, nothing is set yet for RG...

Roger stated yesterday to the Swiss media, before leaving for Dubai, that he will decide on May 10, after his Dubai training block, whether or not he will play RG. So, stay tuned...  

Edit:
Here is the source article from rts.ch/sport (translated from French):

"Roger Federer: I shall be inspired and motivated when I return"

           
Federer shall not play any tournament on clay before Roland-Garros. [Lynne Sladky - Keystone]
   
Friday 14 April 2017              

Roger Federer talked to a handful of journalists before leaving for training in Dubai. He will decide on his participation in Roland-Garros on 10 May.

- Would you have also given up on the clay season if you had not made such an extraordinary start of the season?

ROGER FEDERER: If I has lost each time in the first round, I probably would have tried to play more matches. But internally, we had very quickly decided to play at the most two tournaments on clay, or maybe only one or even none. That was the trend. More over, we had from the start planned a physical preparation phase during the clay season. This is the perfect time, because after Wimbledon, you have little time to train. It's quite simple: my knee suffered a lot last year when I played on clay. People around me also found that it had cost me a lot of energy, energy that I lacked afterwards. I even told them that I would rather not play any tournament on clay. I shall be inspired and motivated upon my return, perhaps with new ideas. It worked rather quite well last time.

- But is it certain that you will perform at Roland Garros?

ROGER FEDERER: We will make a final decision on May 10, at the end of my training camp in Dubai. We will then decide whether or not to move on to clay. The most important will be to see how I feel. You never know what's going to happen by then, either on the physical or mental side. For the moment, my intention is to play Roland-Garros. But the possibility of renouncing on that idea still exists. My pause would then last ten weeks, instead of seven. But one thing is for sure, I shall not participate just to be a mere spectator. That's not how you make miracles happen!

"The goal is to continue to play offensive tennis"
Roger Federer

- And miracles, you have realized some. What has surprised you the most since your return?

ROGER FEDERER: Practically everything has surprised me! The fact that my body stood up to everything, that I was 100% mentally on each outing, that I achieved immense success and that I performed at the highest level in every match. The only thing that did not surprise me was to have right away regained the pleasure of playing in competition.

- If you compete in Roland-Garros, it will be without having played a single match on clay. Will you be able to objectively feel ambitious in these conditions?

ROGER FEDERER: I can reproduce on clay the offensive tennis I play on hard court. It works. If the weather is dry in Paris, the playing conditions will be fast, maybe even more so than at Wimbledon. It would be very interesting to see how I can perform on clay. In any case, the goal is to continue to play an offensive tennis so I do not have to radically change my approach to the game when I play on grass. I proved in 2009 that you could win Roland-Garros by practicing such tennis.