Federer’s February—Nathan’s Notice

Written by: Staff on 4th February 2012

Federer’s February—Nathan’s Notice |

By: Nathan M. Cuny

For the first time since 2004 Roger Federer is playing a first-round match of the Davis Cup. The Fed is playing in Fribourg, Switzerland from February 10^th through 12^th. Federer has not been as committed to the Davis Cup as certain players (Rafael Nadal) but has shown effort as of late to prove he cares. In September Federer played in Australia during a playoff to help his home country, Switzerland, win. For the match in Fribourg Federer helped choose the red clay court surface believing it would play towards the Swiss’ strengths in their upcoming match against the U.S.

The U.S. team is in preparation to take on the powerful team of Roger Federer, best known for his long-time status as No.1 and No. 27 Stanislas Wawrinka. The U.S. team includes both singles and doubles players consisting of No.8 Mardy Fish, No.17 John Isner, doubles No.1 Mike Bryan, and 19 year old Ryan Harrison who currently holds the No. 96 ranking. As mentioned earlier Federer never focused on the Davis Cup nearly as much as he does ATP sanctioned events. The Swiss have never won the Davis Cup in all of Federer’s years playing. At the age of 30, currently holding the No.3 spot, and with retirement looming near perhaps Federer feels it’s time to add one last big title to his bag.

However there is also the possibility that Federer knows playing this year’s Davis Cup will be much easier with Rafael Nadal out of the picture. World No.1 and recent Australian Open winner, Novak Djokovic, also isn’t playing in Serbia’s Davis Cup match against Sweden. Andy Murray has also skipped out of Britain’s Davis Cup tie with Slovakia this month. Of the big four players only Roger Federer will play for a full three weeks during February.

Following the Davis Cup matches Federer is scheduled to play the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, an ATP 500 sanctioned event, from February 13^th through the 19^th. Directly after, Federer plays the final tournament of February—the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, another ATP 500 sanctioned event, from February 27^th to March 3^rd. Nadal is taking the entire month of February off, while Murray and Djokovic follow in similar suite, holding off until Dubai.

Even with the other three members of the top four out of the way for most of February, Roger Federer still has tough competition to face. The U.S. team members also know they have a stiff challenge ahead of them. U.S. captain Jim Courier stated, “We have the toughest draw you can have in Davis Cup. It’s the ultimate test. It’s going to be a big battle, but we have nothing to lose. We have to go out and lay it on the line and we know we are underdogs, but we’ll give it a rip.” Federer will likely come back with a vengeance after his recent teary-eyed semifinals loss to Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open.

Topics: Davis Cup, Roger Federer