Roger Federer Decides To Play Hamburg And Gstaad

Written by: Staff on 3rd July 2013

Roger Federer Decides To Play Hamburg And Gstaad

epa03761858 Swiss player Roger Federer holds a press conference after losing his second round match for the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 26 June 2013. EPA/AELTC / Thomas Lovelock |

There is a commonly held belief that the best way to overcome shock or disappointment is to get back to work straightaway. Although Roger Federer will have had a couple of weeks to come to terms with his earliest Grand Slam demise in more than a decade at Wimbledon, he has opted to play the clay-court German event, the Bet At Home Open in Hamburg beginning July 15 and the Credit Agricole Suisse Open in Gstaad beginning July 22.

He said he has ”great memories” playing at Hamburg where he won four titles, most recently in 2007, when the event had Masters Series status. ”I always did very well at Rothenbaum, played some fantastic matches and celebrated important victories there.”

Federer put great importance on cutting back on his schedule at the beginning of the year but has clearly experienced a change of heart after losing in Wimbledon’s second round last Wednesday against Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky.

Gstaad is the perfect place for Federer to regroup. The Swiss Open may be the lowest-ranked event the 31-year-old will play this year. But the up-market ski resort was the scene of his ATP World Tour debut as a 16 year-old and his adoring home fans will surround him.

The field for the event, which begins on July 22 also includes Janko Tipsarevic, Juan Monaco, Mikhail Youzhny and Federer’s fellow Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka.

At the beginning of his career he played the Alpine event every year, having first been handed a wild card entry in 1998. But since winning the title, beating Igor Andreev in the final nine years ago, Federer has viewed the post-Wimbledon weeks as a vacation period before the US Open series and last summer’s Olympic Games.

Federer used his official website to claim: “I’m really looking forward to playing in front of my home fans.”

And he used his Twitter account to state his attachment to the tournament by tweeting: “Gstaad gave me my first wild card in `98!”

Federer was then ranked 702 on the ATP World rankings but was the newly crowned Wimbledon junior champion who lost in straight sets to Lucas Arnold Ker of Argentina.

©Daily Tennis News Wire

Topics: Bet At Home Open, Credit Agricole Suisse Open, German tennis, Gstaad tennis news, Hamburg tennis news, Janko Tipsarevic, Juan Monaco, Mikhail Youzhny, Roger Federer, Swiss tennis news, Tennis News