Federer offers age-old excuse
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA— Roger Federer prefers to think of Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic as the favourites for the Australian Open title, despite entering as defending champion and coming off a worry-free preparation.
“I play down my chances just because I don’t think a 36-year-old should be a favourite of a tournament,” Federer said Sunday on the eve of the year’s first Grand Slam tournament. “That’s why I see things more relaxed, you know, at a later stage of my career.”
The 19-time major winner can afford to relax slightly longer, given the half of the draw that he shares with Djokovic doesn’t start until Day 2. Top-ranked Nadal will get under way Monday against Victor Estrella Burgos at Rod Laver Arena, where he lost the final in five sets to Federer last year.
All four singles finalists were 30 or older here last year in what became a tournament for the ages, and three of them are back.
Serena Williams beat her older sister Venus Williams in the final to capture an Open era-record 23rd major here last year but decided against defending her title because she didn’t have enough time to re- cover from health issues after a complicated childbirth in September.
Venus, seeded fifth in her 77th major, couldn’t survive the challenge of Swiss youngster Belinda Bencic on Monday, falling 6-3, 6-5.
Venus had been 4-0 in career headto-heads against the 20-year-old Bencic — who reached a career-high No. 7 ranking in 2016 — and, at 37, she was among the top contenders at Melbourne Park. But she was coming off an abbreviated preparation that included a loss to eventual champion Angelique Kerber at the Sydney International last week.
Others in action Monday included: seventh-seeded Jelena Ostapenko, who beat Francesca Schiavone 6-1, 6-4 in a match featuring current vs. former French Open champions; No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki, who opened against Mihaela Buzarnescu; and U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens, the 13th seed, who fell to China’s Zhang Shuai, 2-6, 7-6 (2), 6-2.
Simona Halep is the No. 1 seed in the women’s draw and one of six women who can hold the No. 1 ranking at the end of the Australian Open. Halep, who has had back-to-back first-round exits on her last two trips to Melbourne Park, opens against Australian wild card Destanee Aiava on Tuesday.
Three Canadians earned direct entry into the tournament: No. 22 Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill and Eugenie Bouchard of Westmount, Que. Vancouver’s Vasek Pospisil and Peter Polansky of Thornhill, Ont., won their qualifying matches to reach the main draw.
Federer returns in contrasting circumstances to his appearance in 2017, when he was coming off a sixmonth break for an injured left knee and had low expectations about ending a Grand Slam title drought that dated to Wimbledon in 2012.
“This year I hope to win the first few rounds and get rolling hopefully, whereas last year I was just hoping to win (a match),” Federer told his pretournament news conference Sunday.
“It was more of a ‘let’s see what happens’ kind of tournament, maybe similar to what Novak or Stan (Wawrinka) or others are going through this year.”
Djokovic has been sidelined for six months with an injured right elbow, Wawrinka has been sidelined since Wimbledon after surgery on his knee.
Nadal, who won the French and U.S. Open titles last year, has also had a limited preparation restricted to couple of exhibition matches last week as he recovers from a sore knee.
None of that makes them any less of a threat to Federer.
“Rafa, with the year that he’s had, and Novak with the six titles he’s had here, even if it’s unknown how he’s feeling, they could very well be the favourites, too,” Federer said. “If you’re in the draw, you give yourself a chance.”