After missing the previous three Grand Slam tournaments because of injury, it was a wonderful sight to see Roger Federer take to the clay of Court Philippe-Chatrier–the main court at the Stade Roland Garros–for his first-round match of the French Open.
It was even better for tennis fans to see the Swiss legend brimming with confidence in the Parisian sun as he breezed past Denis Istomin to win in straight sets (6-2, 6-4, 6-3).
Of course that victory was a good start him in Paris. However, with Federer having won the French Open just once (2009) and King of Clay Rafael Nadal a much bigger favorite in the betting exchange, you always knew that Roland Garros would be little more than a Grand Slam warmup for Federer ahead of the upcoming Wimbledon Championships. Unsurprisingly, the Swiss did indeed withdraw from the clay-court major after winning two more matches against Marin Cilic and Dominik Koepfer.
After all, Wimbledon is where the 39-year-old has enjoyed the most success in his lengthy career. He was won the grass-court Grand Slam eight times–which is more than any of the other majors–and after a year on the sidelines he’ll be keen to get his hands back on the trophy on which ‘The All-England Lawn Tennis Club Single-Handed Championship of the World’ is inscribed.
In the mid-2000s, Federer was the man to beat on the pristine grass courts of Wimbledon. However, since his fifth successive triumph in 2007, he has won the tournament just three times–most recently in 2017–and Novak Djokovic has since become the master of Centre Court with four wins in the last six installments of the Championships.
With last year’s Wimbledon having been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, Djokovic is still on course for a third successive victory at the London-based tournament next month. After being easily beaten by Nadal in last year’s French Open final in addition to being disqualified from the 2020 U.S. Open, the Serb will be hungry for more slam success this season.
Even at his current best, it would be hard to imagine Federer getting the better of Djokovic at Wimbledon. The world No. 1 is different class right now, and with Federer fast approaching 40 and having undergone knee surgery, you’d imagine it would be a straightforward victory for Djokovic if they went head-to-head.
Nonetheless, Federer is feeling confident. Even when he was still in the French Open, he was clearly already looking ahead to Wimbledon.
“For me coming back after many months or over a year of rehab,” he said, “the light at the end of the tunnel or the measuring stick was always, ‘Can I come back to a good level against good players?’
“I hope Wimbledon is going to be that place. Maybe there’s going to be even something here in Paris. We’ll see. I hope I can stay healthy from now on forward. I’m quite confident that’s going to stay that way. I’ve also been getting better every month that’s [gone] by, which has been really positive. I didn’t have any setbacks in a year.”
It will be a mammoth task for Federer to win Wimbledon for a ninth time, and he would be the oldest person in the Open Era to do. If he can channel something special from within, then he could go on a decent run at SW19.
However, it seems like Djokovic–along with the younger generation that includes Dominic Thiem, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alexander Zverev, and so on–will prove too strong for the 39-year-old.
nope
Ricky – you are writing rafa off( no mention of him) at wimby but talking of thiem,tsitsipas ,zverev as his challenges. Why so
Hey! I am a bug Rafa fan too – can’t wait for the Djoker Nadal semi tomorrow in Paris, I hope Rafa comes through and wins the tournament to finally become the leader for the most grand slams, surpassing Federer!
I don’t think he will, but he still has a small chance. Experience on the surface definitely counts for something.
Funny thing is, heading into this tournament the top three favourites might still be… the big three. The younger guys have not shown much on grass yet. However like everyone else, they didn’t get a chance last year, so it’s been a while & there are more unknowns than usual. Their games have certainly improved in the interim, but will the lack of grass practice still cost them?
Thiem? Almost no chance, he didn’t even have a good clay season. Medvedev, Zverev & Tsitsipas have the potential to cause some noise.
I think fed will do well at wimby. Being a rafa fan too ,I hope he does well. He deserves a good show at his fav tourney and retire on a high
I am sure even rafa will wish the same for fed. I’ll support fed at wimby against everyone else except if he faces off against rafa.
Djoker is clearly the favourite.
My dark horse is Thiem.
You also can’t Nadal out from the race to win Wimbledon –
He is always dangerous when confident on grass.
He hasn’t won it since 2010, that’s a big gap to bridge.
He came within a couple of points of winning it in 2018 against Nole in what was a de facto final.
Fed produced an insane level of tennis to beat him in the semis in 2019.
He can’t be taken out of the conversation given those results and the fact that none of the young guns have done anything on grass.
Fed had match points in 2019 I think and lost 13-12 in the 5th set TB. He outplayed Djokovic statistically as well.
Interesting article but I lost count of the number of grammatical errors in it. You either wrote it in a rush or were emotionally attached to what you were writing.
It’s OK, Ricky, you’re allowed to get predictions wrong from time to time. There’s no need to get insecure about it all and start writing articles designed to get a reaction from others.
I think ThinWhiteDuke’s response summed it up nicely; the grass is different to other surfaces, you can continue playing on it at the highest level a lot longer than clay and hard court, especially when you have a good serve and all-court game, and experience counts for a lot.
If Fed makes the semis or finals I think he’ll be really happy. If he wins it again, he’ll be over the moon. Either way, there’s nothing lost by believing you can still be very competitive while continuing to enjoy the game.
I think I’ll wait to see Fed play Halle on grass before forming any opinion. He’s two years older than the last time we saw him there. He looked great at RG, considering, and obviously his fighting spirit, developed at the hands of a couple of experts named Nadal and Djokovic, is intact.
I reckon that whoever loses tomorrow’s semifinal between Rafa and Djokovic is the favourite for Wimbledon. Neither of them is tired and the loser will have enough time to adapt to the grass.
Given enough luck, Federer might actually pull off a stunt and add to his GS tally, like he did at AO 2017. It’s not (just) about his age, it’s about not having played for so long and not having enough preparation. Can anyone imagine him winning the last set tie-break this year?
The fact that RG has been postponed for a week is definitely playing in Roger’s hands, but normally it shouldn’t be enough. Rafa and Novak are playing as good as ever and there’s no way Federer can catch up with them for now.
Cristian ..you keeping tomms semi open I see 🙂
Well, stranger things have happened. Not many play well on grass nowadays. There don’t seem to be many other contenders. Only Djokovic, Nadal, Thiem, Tsitsipas, Zverev were mentioned here (the “and so on” was added just to cover any surprises). Thiem is as good as not playing right now and Zverev is a GS choker. Tsitsipas will probably be tired and doesn’t seem to like grass. Neither Nadal nor Djokovic are guaranteed to make it into the second week at Wimbledon after going deep at RG and having a short time to adapt to grass. It’s not impossible that Federer takes advantage of this, but it’s not very probable either.
Rafa did not do well enough at Wimbledon in the past years, but all things considered I think that he’s got a much better chance than Federer to go all the way this year.