Federer must play the French Open
One of the major topics of discussions nowadays is whether Roger should play the French Open or not. We at 138mph ask why not?
Roger has been on fire in 2017, he won the Australian Open after a six months hiatus and without any serious match play. He even beat his nemesis Nadal in the finals and showcased to the world an effective version of his one handed backhand which became the talk of the tennis world in the first quarter of 2017.
Roger is also the 2nd best active clay court player and has reached the finals of the French Open in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2011 and won it in 2009. The only player who stood between the La Coupe des Mousquetaires and Roger in the past was Nadal and that too by exploiting his backhand quite persistently and unabashedly! Now, with his improved backhand, Roger not only stands to erase that advantage of Nadal but also use that backhand as a weapon.
Further, Roger would have rested a good 45 days prior to the French Open and will be fresh and rejuvenated to take on the clay challenge from Nadal, Djokovic, Wawarinka or anyone else that he faces. Yes Roger will not be battle hardened because of it but an old horse like Federer needs more to be well rested than battle hardened. And, if he can get past the first two rounds and gather steam then anything can happen.
Roger is not careless enough to injure himself for Wimbledon and he will also have a week or two to rest in between the French Open and Wimbledon.
Therefore it’d be utterly silly for Roger to not play and even sillier for some people to suggest or recommend that he should not.
Actually Djoko is the 2nd best active player to Nadal indeed he won many battles against Nadal over the years ..But roger never show any dominance in clay over the years even when he is on prime….present improved back hand may well work on hard courts but on super slow and high bouncing rolland grass needs more physical ability than elegant style …so its a big doubt roger prevail in FO leave nadal or djoko but theim,goffin,nishikori, zverev all have potential to knock any top seeds…i won’t say its impossible for FED..but its extremely difficult unlike his favorite hard courts ,,may be his strategy may well work on Wimby…
I agree with the author of this article… Federer is definitely the second best player after Nadal on clay at present… Taking only h2h records is no way to judge the greatness.. its the over-all achievements.. Federer has made it to 5 RG finals and won 1 from it. Djokovic has made it to 4 RG finals and won 1.
Rogers is playing and probably will win the french open this year. Just to see him lift the french open trophy live had to subscribe to Ivacy VPN so I could access ITV player which will be broadcasting the event, since without a vpn it would give me the geo-restriction error.