Federer fit and fresh
Gunning for eighth title in season-ender in London
ROGER FEDERER will kick-start the ATP Finals with the Swiss bidding for an eighth title this season and the chance at a seventh career trophy at the year-end showpiece.
The 36-year-old will open in a group match against American Jack Sock, last man into the eight-strong field by virtue of a title in Paris last weekend.
The second match will pit German yearend debutant Alexander Zverev against Wimbledon finalist Marin Cilic.
Sock has never won a set against 19-time grand slam champion Federer in three meetings, including a loss last March in Indian Wells as the Swiss headed to the title at the opening Masters 1000 of the season.
Federer won Shanghai and his home event in Basel back-to-back last month before skipping Paris to rest prior to his assault on London as second seed behind Rafael Nadal in the eight-man field.
“It’s a good achievement for me,” Federer said in the run-up to the year-ender, being played for a 10th year in east London.
“I couldn’t be here last year so it’s nice to be back here again,” he said in reference to 2016 knee problems.
“I enjoy competing with the best and I’m happy I made it back.”
The Swiss icon last won the title in 2011, eight years after his first in 2003.
“Every year feels different, but I’m refreshed and ready. Feeling tired and confident would be final also. One more push and the season’s over.”
Federer and No. 1 Rafael Nadal are drawn into a possible final next Sunday should both advance to that dream matchup.
“I feel great coming in,” Federer said. “I enjoy playing well at this event.”
Federer, a noted forward-thinker, said that he and his team already have December’s training sessions mapped out, with the world No. 2 set to start the new season in late December at the Hopman Cup in Perth.
“There will be a lot of fitness work, that for me is the key to staying strong. But right now we are focussed on finishing the season in a good way.”
He said that a repeat of this year’s decision to completely skip the clay season in 2018 is still being discussed.
“We are considering all the options. I’m’ talking with the team now. Everything will be on the table in 2018. I’m hoping to play on clay, it’s one of the options in the decision-
Roger Federer during practice at the O2 Arena in London yesterday for the ATP World Tour Finals. making,” Federer said.
The Swiss also passed an opinion on possible rule changes to be debated in the surrounds of the year-end by representatives of the four grand slams.
Up for discussion will be the possibility of limiting seeds to just 16 again instead of the current 32, a concept which sits well with Federer.
“It’s an intriguing idea. It might be interesting and could make the draw more volatile. The top guys have made it a habit of getting through the first week of the slams,” he said.
“Probably playing the No. 17 or 19 in the first round may not be something they want to do. But I don’t see much wrong with tennis, it doesn’t need that much fixing. I don’t really like to see too many changes.”
Grand slam bosses are also set to consider many of the experiments with the rules trialled at the ATP NexGen Finals in Milan.
Among those are on-court coaching at the end of sets, strict adherence to the shot clock to avoid time-wasting in between points, and the controversial 4-4 sets which then go into tiebreakers. – dpa