Fed express is right on track to regain summit
The statistics say it and his compatriot Stan Wawrinka agrees: at 35, Roger Federer could be on his way back to world No 1.
With Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic out of the Miami Open, Federer arrived in south Florida on the back of his best start to the season since 2004, which he ended in top spot.
Federer has beaten six top-10 players and is 13-1 for the year. So far in 2017, he has amassed nearly double the ranking points of anyone else — Rafa Nadal being his nearest challenger.
Wawrinka, who he beat in the Indian Wells final on Sunday, gave his opinion: ‘For sure Roger has a
23 THE number of winners Federer smashed past Stan Wawrinka in the all-Swiss final in Indian Wells, 16 off his reworked backhand.
shot at No 1, from him nothing is surprising,’ he said.
Federer last night restricted himself to declaring that he is massively, unexpectedly, beyond the level he imagined he would reach after six months out injured last year.
‘I couldn’t be more happy. The goal was to be top eight after Wimbledon and here I am way ahead of schedule,’ he said, up to world No 6 already.
Federer drew a contrast with this time a year ago, when he attempted to rush back to competition after minor knee surgery that followed the Australian Open.
‘I postponed my pre-tournament press conference four times here because I wasn’t feeling well and then I ended up not playing at all,’ he recalled.
‘The most important thing was to be healthy again and walk around without crutches and run without having a swollen knee.’
Federer learned from that experience and aborted his season after Wimbledon. he focused on coming back in January and did so with such effect that he ended up winning the Australian Open.
he timed it with the precision of a Swiss clock: ‘After Wimbledon I had a plan of what I would do in physio, then in fitness and then when the tennis came back into it.
‘Just going through six straight weeks or two months of practising is something I’ve never had. I used to sometimes take two months off and one month would be fitness and then another month tennis.
‘But this time because I had about three months of fitness first, I had two months of tennis. Maybe it shows to other players that working on your game pays off.’
Federer says that his training has not changed much from when he was 25.
‘Maybe I take a few more days off now when I’m training. Before, I would push through for seven or eight days in a row. Now maybe I take a day off after three days.
‘At 25 I was winning 90 per cent of my matches — you play that much more, you race from one tournament to the next. It was an incredible experience but now I see things differently.’
Particularly eyecatching has been what has happened to his backhand. It is more potent off the return, slightly more compact in the swing and he uses the slice less than before. Against the likes of Nadal and Wawrinka in Indian Wells he was ripping it as rarely seen before.
‘I don’t think any change is quite as extreme as some people say, but I know I am hitting it well right now and maybe there is a freshness and a confidence that I am able to bring to the table right now,’ said Federer.
It is apparently his increasingly influential coach Ivan Ljubicic, the former world No 3 from Croatia, who has instructed him to strike out on the backhand.
By being so aggressive he has avoided taxing his body more than necessary. For instance, his final on Sunday involved 22 games but lasted only an hour and 20 minutes.
his five- set semi-final against Wawrinka in Australia took barely three hours, after which he had two days off.
While Murray and Djokovic are suffering elbow problems — one school of thought with the latter is that the amount of ‘arm’ he uses on his serve is finally taking its toll — the silky Federer remains healthy.
This week he is back as No 4 seed, whereas he began Australia as No 17.
Progress has indeed been remarkably quick.