Roger Federer may be the most prolific champion among the four who top the seedings in this year’s Wimbledon draw, yet he is not one of the four who could end the tournament as world No1.
Even so, he has worked himself into the frame as many pundits’ favourite to win an eighth title at the place where he has shone more brightly than almost anywhere else.
Federer has never made a secret of his love for grass nor his love for Wimbledon. He put it thus in Halle:
“I think the feel on the grass is great, it’s soft, it’s quiet, you don’t hear the squeaking of the shoes like on hard courts. I just feel like that it’s a very calming surface.”
It started with his winning both junior titles, in singles and doubles, at the All England Club in 1998. It continued in 2001 with his first and only match against his early idol Pete Sampras, a victory on his way to the quarter-finals.
And Wimbledon was where his record-breaking Grand Slam story began in 2003, the first of 18 Majors. In 2012, he matched Sampras’s record tally of seven Wimbledon titles and, at the same time, regained the No1 ranking. And that took Sampras’s record of weeks at the top of the ranks: 287. Federer already owned the consecutive record of 237 and has gone on to reach 302 in total.
And although he cannot regain the No1 at this Wimbledon, the Swiss has been producing the kind of results that may take him there by the end of the season.
But first things first. After the toughest year of his career in 2016—knee surgery, no titles, a slip to No17, just 18 matches played after the Australian Open—Federer bounced back this January to win his first Major since that 2012 Wimbledon triumph, and followed it with the tour’s two biggest Masters, Indian Wells and Miami.
Then he took the bold decision to bypass the entire clay season to give his 35-year-old body the best chance of success on his beloved grass.
He explained it in Halle, where a fortnight ago he went on to win his ninth title:
“The schedule was to play Paris and all of a sudden I just felt in the team and within me that I didn’t feel comfortable doing it, and I didn’t want to make any compromises for the big goal, the grass season and Wimbledon—and the US Open and beyond.”
It clearly worked. After a rusty opener in Stuttgart, he eased through the Halle draw after losing in the semis there last year. Perhaps, indeed, it had been the lesson learned in the latter half of 2016 that encouraged this unusual move. For he admitted in his pre-tournament press at Wimbledon this weekend:
“Last year, my knee was bad the entire grass court season.”
He had, he said, little choice but to stop if he was to make a complete recovery:
“It was an interesting few weeks, having to decide if I can play the Olympics or not, if I can skip the Olympics and play the US Open, speaking to several doctors, speaking to the team, just trying to understand what’s best for my health, how much time is required.
“Very quickly, the trend was to have at least four months. I was kind of surprised to hear that because I figured maybe a month, maybe two, everything should be alright. But if we wanted to get full healing and full strength back, unfortunately that’s what it was going to take.”
So he learned, of necessity, to play the long game, and has continued to do so through the last 12 months.
“I kind of never regretted [missing the French Open], even though it hurt, because it was the first time I pulled out of a Slam actually feeling 100 percent ready to go. [But] I gave myself the best chance for the grass, so I would never look back and have regrets once I came here.
“I’m 35 years old. I’ve won the French Open once… and we all felt the same way, that it’s better to save myself and give it all I have for the rest of the season, not just the grass season, but looking beyond that, too, all the way to the American summer.”
There are, of course, other benefits of missing the clay swing and the very different demands it makes on the body. Grass poses particular challenges for the tennis player, and those are only exaggerated in the transition from clay. He explained:
“I think [grass] is a tough surface to play on. There is a lot of adjustment you have to make. You are caught in a lot of awkward moments, awkward points, there are bad bounces, the ball doesn’t bounce very high, so you are usually moving forward rather than just sideways and that’s a bit of a change to the other nine or 10 months of the year.
“And then the slice on the backhand, let’s say, and the slide on the serve, they slide very well and you just have to get used to that. The problem is that we don’t have that many tournaments to really get used to it.”
Federer’s natural game incorporates all those qualities, and when combined with his predilection for attacking tennis, it suits the grass to a tee. His own description of his practice this week makes that abundantly clear:
“I don’t want to be at the mercy of my opponent. I want to take charge, play aggressive myself. So for that, I need to be fast on my feet and quick in my mind. I just need enough rest so I can play enough inspired tennis. In practice, I’m trying to play forward, serve and volleying some, making sure I don’t get stuck behind the baseline, just making shots. It’s more being really proactive.”
He arrives at Wimbledon, then, as the No3 seed, with a ninth Halle title in the bag, his record number of grass titles extended to 16, about to play in his 19th Wimbledon in pursuit of his 19th Major, and with the opportunity finally to outnumber Sampras in titles here, too.
And there is another milestone up for grabs even before the second week: Federer needs just one win to overtake Jimmy Connors’ Open record of 84 match-wins at Wimbledon.
It won’t be easy. The Swiss takes on the unpredictable Alexandr Dolgopolov on Tuesday. But make no mistake: the Swiss wants seven wins over the next fortnight, not just one. As he put it when sitting alongside two of Wimbledon’s most famous former champions at the unveiling of the Laver Cup:
“I couldn’t be happier that Wimbledon is here again because that was my goal after I left Wimbledon last year feeling not well… to be 100 percent this time—and I do, which is wonderful.”