Instead Of Vacationing, Roger Federer Is Playing

Written by: Staff on 16th July 2013

Instead Of Vacationing, Roger Federer Is Playing

epa03757793 Roger Federer of Switzerland returns to Victor Hanescu of Romania during their first round match for the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 24 June 2013. EPA/GERRY PENNY |

Normally at this time of year, with little more than a week passed since the climax of Wimbledon, Roger Federer is to be found on a yacht sailing around the Maldives or some other grandiose holiday retreat. But this year it is not a case of getting away from it all but getting back to work for the 31 year-old Swiss who suffered his earliest exit from the All England Club since 2002.

Federer has literally been shocked back into action and is this week playing the Bet-at-Home Open on the red clay of Hamburg’s famed Rothenbaum before moving onto his homeland next week for the Credit Agricole Suisse Open in Gstaad.

The man, who has broken just about every tennis record in the book but this week stands at a strange fifth position on the ATP World Tour rankings, said he made the decision to play the two clay court events the day after his shock second round loss to Sergiy Stakhovsky of the Ukraine at Wimbledon.

“I think this decision was made very quickly the day after Wimbledon,” Federer told the German press today. “I thought, what are my options now? Do I need more practice? Do I need more matches? What does my heart say? I really wanted to play some more matches.”

Last year Federer returned to action quickly but only because the Olympic tennis event was being held at Wimbledon and the previous year he played one rubber of a Davis Cup World Group second round tie against Portugal in Berne.

But Federer’s normal schedule sees him rest after Wimbledon until the Rogers Cup in Canada, staged alternate years in Montreal and Toronto, with the action not starting until early August.

“Right now I just want to win a lot of matches, hopefully win a couple of tournaments and then sort of build confidence and go from there into the hard courts.”

The two tournaments would appear to be favorable venues for Federer to rejuvenate his self-belief. He won the Hamburg title four times when it was a Masters 1000 series event until being downgraded in 2008. And he won the title in Gstaad on his last appearance in the Alpine resort, famously collecting ownership of the dairy cow Juliette as part of his prize.

There is also speculation Federer is trying out a new racket this week after losing in the French Open quarterfinal and Wimbledon’s second round. He has certainly been practicing with a much larger headed racket so far this week and it is painted black, as opposed to the red and white Wilson BLX 90 ProStaff he has traditionally wielded in recent years.

@Daily Tennis News Wire

Topics: All Club, Atp World Tour, Bet At Home Open, EnglandRoger Federer, Sports, Tennis News

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10sBalls_com says:

July 16, 2013 at 8:59 am

Instead Of Vacationing, Roger Federer Is Playing – http://t.co/GnUzzCcNSZ – @rogerfederer #tennis @FedererNews @roger_fed @BleacherReport