Federer turns back the clock on return to clay
NEW DELHI: Roger Federer entered Court Philippe Chatrier in a shirt the colour of blood, yet it wasn’t as ominous as the red of the clay he had stepped on to. On the very court and surface that caused his itchiest relationship with the sport, Federer walked gingerly on his repaired knees behind his opponent, Denis Istomin, to play his first match of any consequence not just this year, but since the Australian Open in 2020.
To begin the contest against Istomin and his own joints, Federer watched the Uzbek qualifier toss the ball up. But seemingly before it even came down, Federer had won the first set, wrapped up in all of 22 minutes. So, Federer swished back his perfectly parted hair and smiled.
Twenty-two minutes. Despite the fact that before Monday, Federer had played all of three matches this year, losing two of them to nobodies. So it really should have been Istomin testing Federer’s movements, but for the entirety of the match it was the other way around. Like when Istomin was serving at 2-4 down in the first and was dragged ahead on the return by a shortarm backhand. Istomin hunted down the drop and played a cheeky crosscourt drop himself. Federer could’ve chosen to not work those knees, but he ran it down with the abandon of a teen and hooked a winner over the highest point of the net on the slide. It made for glorious viewing—as have most of his deep runs on this court in the past.
Federer’s love-hate relationship with the soil is well-documented. The greatest grass-court player grew up playing exclusively on clay; so much so that he was quite possibly the best player on the dirt until a teenage Spaniard came along in 2005. On four occasions Rafa Nadal was the proverbial final hurdle of various French Opens, but the one that truly wounded Federer was 2008, the 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 loss easily the most one-sided Slam defeat of his career.
Exactly like in the previous set, Istomin found himself multiple break points down to open the second. However, this time Istomin held. This truly woke Federer up. There was an overhead he didn’t put away at 1-1, so he elegantly backtracked with the lob and sky-hooked a winner. Istomin was promptly broken next game, and the second set was soon over too—thanks to yet another Federer ace. His serves were now just as imperious as they were a year after his lowest ebb in Paris.
Just when no one in their right minds gave him a chance in 2009, plenty of magical things happened during Federer’s fortnight. A day after Nadal’s firstever loss in Paris (to his blisters as much as to Robin Soderling), Federer turned around a two-set deficit in the fourth round against Tommy Haas. There was another five-setter in the semis against Juan Martin del Potro. Then, in the final, Federer slipped to his then good knees and thanked Soderling for his only French Open title.
That moment never again repeated itself for Federer in Roland Garros. Which explains why when he first chose to miss a Grand Slam in 2016, he elected to skip the French Open. A missed French recharged him enough for 2017 to win not one but two Slams, so he skipped the French again, before showing up when he was least expected in 2019. Even more unexpected was his subsequent run to the semifinal, where he lost to who else but Nadal.
Monday was his first feel of the Parisian mud since that day. It didn’t feel that way for the 92 minutes he was on court, where an old man made those old knees dance once again, in possibly his final attempt to befriend that red grime all over again.