Federer’s Warm Up—Nathan’s Notice

Written by: Staff on 10th February 2012

Federer’s Warm Up—Nathan’s Notice |

By: Nathan M. Cuny

Is Roger Federer losing his touch once again? At the end of 2011 Federer went on a winning streak knocking out all of his opponents in Basel, the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Paris, and the Barclay’s ATP World Tour Finals. Federer’s winning streak continued all the way up until he lost to Rafael Nadal in the Australian Open semifinals. It was a tough loss for Federer and he was undoubtedly hoping for a comeback during the first round tie of the Davis Cup, however that comeback didn’t happen.

Prior to his recent match against John Isner in Fribourg Federer released how he felt about his future prospects in a recent press interview. Federer stated, “ I am in a good state mentally and physically. I have had a great run since last year’s US Open; I had not lost until the other week. It was a good period for me, and I hope I can get back in winning ways this weekend. Here in Switzerland, it is nice we got home-court advantage, and we will try to make the best of it and see where it takes us.”

Federer’s home-court advantage had little consequence in his match against John Isner after losing to him in four sets. Switzerland has never won the Davis Cup in all of Roger Federer’s years playing as the tennis superstar. The biggest victory Federer ever accomplished for Switzerland during any Davis Cup tie was back in 2001. This year Federer has dedicated himself to the Davis Cup more than ever and although the Swiss’ most recent matches against their American opponents have been unfortunate, luck may still be on his side.

Federer is really pushing his schedule this year in comparison to other years. Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are following Federer’s usual form of a lighter schedule. Federer may be playing more in the attempt to prove to himself he still has was made him year-end No.1 for five years. Perhaps he is strategizing himself to play hard during the start of the year so he can have back-to-back wins at the end of the season.

Following the Davis Cup matches Federer is scheduled to play the ATP 500 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament from February 13^th through the 19^th. Directly after, Federer plays the ATP 500 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, the final tournament of February. The tournament begins February 27^th and ends March 3^rd. Very soon after Federer makes his appearance at Indian Wells, the first Master’s 1000 tournament of the season where the currently resting members of the top four will return. As a final theory Federer might be using the tournaments prior to Indian Wells as practice where he will fully unleash himself.

Topics: Roger Federer