Osaka, Federer face familiar questions in clay-court swing
PARIS — The build-up to Roland Garros, the second Grand Slam of the season, shifts into top gear Monday as the main clay-court swing begins.
Naomi Osaka will look to win a first title on the sport’s slowest, and arguably most testing surface, while Roger Federer is pondering taking a Paris gamble before heading to the more comfortable surrounds of Wimbledon.
Osaka conundrum
Already a four-time Grand Slam title winner, Osaka should be a hot tip to win a maiden French Open to add the US and Australian Opens she currently holds.
However, the Japanese 23-yearold, whose seven career titles have all come on hard courts, has struggled to adapt her big-serving, bighitting game to a surface where movement and strategy are key.
“I’d love to win a tournament on clay,” Osaka said after her 23-match winning run was ended by Maria Sakkari in Miami last week.
“I feel like no matter what I’ll have more freedom on the clay courts and the grass than on hard, because I feel like I’m still learning a lot on those surfaces.”
At Roland Garros, Osaka has never reached beyond the third round in four appearances while she skipped last year’s Paris showpiece as well as the entire clay season.
She made the semifinals on clay in Stuttgart as well as the last eight in Madrid and Rome in 2019.
Osaka is only scheduled to make her clay-court bow this season in Madrid in the first week of May.
At her side is experienced coach Wim Fissette who took Simona Halep to the 2017 Roland Garros final.
“I’m going to learn a lot from Wim. He’s very energetic and excited to move on to the new surfaces,” she said.
While Osaka waits for her claycourt start, world No 1 Ashleigh Barty, the 2019 Roland Garros winner, is the top seed in Charleston this week.
Roger’s riddle
Swiss great Federer remains undecided over how much of the clay season he will play.
With his 40th birthday in August, Federer knows that longtime rival Rafael Nadal could move past him on the all-time list for Grand Slam titles with 21 if the Spaniard claims a 14th championship at Roland Garros in June.
Only one of Federer’s 20 majors has come in Paris, back in 2009 when Nadal suffered the first of just two career losses at the tournament.
Federer, on the tour since 1998, only returned to action in March after 13 months out to recover from two knee surgeries.
He only played two matches in Qatar and insisted afterward that Wimbledon, where he has won eight titles, remains his priority in 2021.
“What comes before the grass courts are the clay courts. So from that standpoint, I have no choice but to play on clay if I want to play matches,” he added.
“It could be good for me, the clay. It could be bad for me. So I will only know in practice, but I don’t think it’s going to be bad, to be honest.”
Federer hasn’t won a tour clay title since Istanbul in 2015; his most recent Masters triumph on the surface was Madrid in 2012.
Resuming rivalries
Nadal can win an eye-popping 14th Roland Garros title in June and move past Federer on the all-time list for Slam titles.
If he is to claim a 21st Slam, it’s likely that 18-time major winner Novak Djokovic will once again be his most daunting foe.
At the delayed 2020 tournament, Nadal thrashed Djokovic in straight sets in the final.
That defeat, the Serb’s seventh in eight meetings in Paris, thwarted Djokovic’s hopes of becoming the first man in over half a century to win all four Slams multiple times.
Before Roland Garros, there’ll be a degree of cat and mouse between the two men.
Both entered in Monte Carlo from April 11 before Djokovic plays at home in Belgrade in the same week Nadal takes the stage in Barcelona.
It is then expected that Djokovic will skip Madrid leaving the two to possibly meet again only in Rome before Roland Garros.