Roger Federer is back on clay

Large crowds gathered to watch his practice with Robin Haase on Estadio Manolo Santana on Friday. It was standing room only for his hit with Kei Nishikori on Sunday. The press room is as busy as it’s ever been and his media commitments spanned several hours on Media Day, all in anticipation of his opening match on Tuesday night in the Spanish capital.

The Swiss star has not played a match on the red dirt since Rome in May 2016, and hasn’t contested Roland-Garros since 2015.

After injury forced him to cut his 2016 clay-court swing short, Federer opted out of playing on the surface the past two seasons.

But a surprise announcement came following his Australian Open fourth round exit last January when the 37-year-old stated he would be donning his sliding shoes once again for this spring’s clay campaign. 

“[The decision] was made based on mood,” Federer told the ATP’s Tennis TV.

“I was in the mood to play again, I was happy to go back on the clay, I was happy to do a build-up on clay and I’m also particularly happy to play at Roland-Garros again, a tournament that I missed three straight times now, once because of injury, twice because I just felt like it was better for my health, and better for my life as a family and father and husband and also for my game, if I wanted to stay in the game, I felt like maybe skipping the clay season was going to help me do that. And I feel like it did.

So coming back this year on the clay was a good feeling.”

Federer, a 20-time Grand Slam champion and winner at Roland Garros in 2009, strategically chose Madrid for his return because it allowed him enough preparation time after Miami, which he won end of March, and also gave him a couple of weeks of recovery ahead of Paris.

He started hitting on clay last month in Switzerland and says things have gone smoothly so far.

“It's been good. It's been fun. I was lucky, we had good weather when I started. So that helped because I remember three or four years ago, when I was practicing it was snowing, like this weekend in Switzerland, and that didn't inspire me very much to go practice on clay, or go into an indoor bubble and stuff, so this year was easy. I enjoyed myself a lot,” Federer told reporters in his press conference on Sunday.

Federer rebounded nicely from his last-16 defeat to Stefanos Tsitsipas at the Australian Open earlier this year by making the final in his next three tournaments, winning two of them. His triumphs in Dubai and Miami earned him his 100th and 101st career titles.

Ranked No. 3 in the world this week, Federer was asked if he struggled with the transition to the clay when he began training on it again.

“Not too much, funnily enough. Look, it takes some time getting used to how to construct the points maybe a little bit more. Because there is more baseline, there is a possibility to play with more angles and height, I guess, off a hard ball you can roll it and spin it and go loopy, whereas on a faster court you almost have to hit against it. It is hard to take pace off the ball,” he replied.

“So, from that standpoint, it's been interesting and fun. But not so challenging, to be honest.”

He’s keeping his expectations in check though and is keen to head to Paris pressure-free.

“I haven’t played on clay for three years so maybe for the first time in 15 years I can go to Roland Garros and be like, ‘Let’s just see what happens.’ And maybe that’s exactly what is going to make a beautiful result. And if it’s not, no problem,” Federer said in an interview with the New York Times.

While clay may not be Federer’s strongest surface, it is one where he has enjoyed considerable success, with his 75.9 winning percentage on it placing him just third, behind Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, among active male players. It is a statistic that is not lost on his opponents, including Dominic Thiem, who defeated Federer in the Swiss’ most recent clay-court match, in Rome 2016.

“I think that Roger is also one of the best players on this surface of all time,” Thiem said of Federer in Madrid on Sunday.  

“The only thing that stopped him so many times is Rafa. Probably if Rafa wouldn't be there, he would win five or six Roland Garros titles. And even now he has an amazing career win-loss on clay. 

I think he also feels comfortable on the surface. He grew up on it as well for sure in Switzerland. He knows how to move and everything. So, doesn't matter where or which tournaments he plays, he will always be one of the favourites.”