In the men’s game of clay-court tennis, the followers just have one definite name is their minds and i.e., ‘Rafael Nadal,’ the ultimate ‘king of clay’. And in a few years time, people might begin associating ‘Dominic Thiem’ to be the clay emperor. But fortunately, the sport of tennis is blessed with a few more talented clay-courters, namely, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Stan Wawrinka.
The Spaniard ace Nadal firmly believes Federer is one of the gifted clay-courters in tennis. “Roger Federer is an amazing champion, too. He’s a fantastic player, a clay‑court player. A player who was able to play 2006, 2007, 2008, finals, then winning 2009. And then playing the final again in 2011. The semi-finals in 2005,” Nadal once said.
Federer’s clay-court theatrics
Consolidating Nadal’s words the 2009 Roland-Garros champion Federer has won 80% of French Open matches in his career. Since 2005, the Swiss player has lost six Parisian major matches to Nadal, one to Robin Soderling, Djokovic, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Ernests Gulbis, and Stan Wawrinka.
“I don’t see a lot of players that have been in all that final rounds of French Open in a row. So that says that Roger is one of the best clay‑court players of the history probably,” the ‘king of clay’ Nadal lauded his friend and foe Federer.
Besides his decent run on the pivotal province of clay in the French capital, Federer has clinched 11 ATP clay titles and has reached 15 clay finals.
In today’s time, a professional tennis player ranked inside the top 50 ATP rankings dreams of winning a maximum of 10 career titles. But the legendary tennis icon, Federer has more than ten titles on the clay itself. And 20-time Slam champion isn’t really comfortable playing his natural game on the terre-battue.
The clay might be the weakest surface of Roger. But from a Fedfan’s perspective, the Swiss maestro’s sliding serve-and-volley on red-sludge is simply one of the resonating glimpses in tennis.
Federer is yet to win the clay Masters titles in Monte-Carlo and Rome in his career. But regardless of those missing crowns from his hoard of 103 titles, tennis experts claim the Swiss maestro “is a fantastic clay-court player.”
When Roger bageled Rafa on clay
One of the memorable matches from Federer’s clay career would be his title victory at Hamburg finals 2007. Roger snapped his arch-rival Rafa’s 81-match victory streak on clay after bouncing back from one set deficit.
Rafa’s flourishing streak was dating back from April 2005. But that day on the German clay, the Mallorcan muscleman could not overpower Federer’s one-hand backhands.
Consequently, Federer won 2-6 6-2 6-0 in the ATP Masters 1000 title match. “If I had to lose to anyone, Roger is the man,” the 20-year-old Nadal shared after his loss.
“Clay came first” – Roger Federer
Some of the tennis followers might be unaware of the fact that Roger Federer has some deep-rooted connections with the clay-court. He enjoys taking those full swings on the slow surface. And yes, of course, his sliding serve-and-volley poetry-like skills cannot be overlooked.
The boy from Basel grew up playing clay-court tennis and till date, he immensely reveres his Slam victory in the drizzling aura of Paris!
“My first challenger was on clay, my first satellite was on clay, the first player I beat was on clay. So clay came first,” Federer once shared.
Tim Henman: “Roger Federer has done as good a job of avoiding injuries”
In the midst of the suspensions and cancellations that the whole world of sport has had to deal with because of the Coronavirus emergency, a consideration is circulating on social media between serious and facetious. In fact, Roger Federer has chosen the ideal time to stop and undergo the knee operation.
When the 20-time Slam champion opted for this decision on February 21st, it was calculated that he would lose 3180 points until the start of the season on grass. In a recent interview, Tim Henman spoke about the Swiss champion: “Federer has done as good a job as anyone of avoiding injuries but he’s out at the moment having had knee surgery.
So it does happen and you just have to manage it and make sure you’re patient and you wait until you’re 100 percent fit and healthy to come back”. He also discussed Andy Murray’s future: “He’s 32-years-old and he’s not getting any younger and that’s where it’ll be hard because time isn’t on his side.
But it’s amazing to come back and win a tournament on the tour – to win Antwerp like he did last year was an incredible achievement and I think he can get back playing even better than that. To compete over seven matches over five sets like he’ll need to do to win grand slam titles will be very, very difficult.
But as I’ve seen time and time again with Andy Murray, if you say to him he can’t do something, he certainly likes to prove people wrong. Seeing him on the practice court and seeing how much he’s enjoying himself, I think it’s incredibly impressive, especially considering what he’s achieved in the game already.”
