ATP Madrid: Roger Federer is ready for the sand return
Roger Federer will hit the ashes again at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Madrid for the first time since 2016. Despite the clay court comeback, the Swiss is extremely relaxed before the start in the Spanish capital.
by Nikolaus Fink
last edit: May 05, 2019, 03:42 pm
by Nikolaus Fink from Madrid
"Not so challenging." With these words, Roger Federer describes his clay court preparation. The Swiss seems to be ready for his return to the clay courts of the world. The Maestro also proves this in the well-attended training sessions, in which he gives a hint of what he can do on ashes.
You can tell that Federer is in the mood for the clay court season. "I want to enjoy it," said the 20-time Grand Slam winner, explaining his approach to the fourth ATP Masters 1000 tournament of the year. The conditions in the Spanish capital suit him, so Federer doesn't just want to play "two matches" in Madrid and Paris.
"I don't have high expectations, but at the same time I know that things are possible," Federer points out. By now he had got used to playing on sand again, it had "taken some time to get used to constructing the points." But Federer has internalized that too, the joint training in Switzerland with Dan Evans gave him the necessary security.
Possible quarter-final duel with Thiem
"I was lucky we had good weather at the start. That helped," explains Federer. After that, there was a small change in the weather in his home country, but this was certainly not a disadvantage for the necessary competition: "It was good."
Federer does not want to be distracted from possible secondary scenes such as the resignation of Justin Gimelstobs, although he believes that the resignation is "definitely the right decision". His differences with Novak Djokovic about the future of the ATP tour also leave the Swiss cold: "We haven't talked about the situation yet." In general, according to Federer, "there is currently a lot of blah."
The focus of the Confederation is solely on the tournament in Madrid. Federer will open his clay court season on Tuesday evening against Richard Gasquet or Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. In the fourth final, the 37-year-old Dominic Thiem could wait for the first real touchstone. At the latest then the fans would probably experience magical moments again in the "Caja Magica" from the Meastro.