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Federer's Clay Motivation: Embrace the Long Point


Roger Federer expanded upon what he considers one of the biggest reasons for returning to the clay in 2019—the ability to grind.

Federer told reporters on Tuesday in Madrid that he is very serious about working on his performance in the longer points, particularly because he had so much difficulty when he lost to John Millman in brutal heat in the U.S. Open’s fourth round of 16 last year.

“This was not about the knee,” Federer said. “This was more about preparing for extended rallies which I knew I wanted to work on because of the problems I had at the US Open with the heat.”

We have long wondered if Federer felt his game might benefit from a return to the clay, but it hasn’t always been clear how he felt about the subject of what playing on clay can do for his game on the faster surfaces.

We knew he wanted to return to the cities in Europe that he has made so much history—like Madrid where he played one of the best matches of his career against Rafael Nadal when he defeated him in the 2009 final, or Paris, where he completed the Calendar Slam and tied Pete Sampras on the all-time major titles list in that same year.

But we didn’t know that part of the plan was to develop more shot tolerance, so that he can perform better if he finds himself in a grueling match like the one he lost to Millman.

Federer elaborated on the subject more with reporters:

“I just think a lot of things led to that problem at the US Open,” he said. “I had a stiff back, I guess, from sort of post-Wimbledon until I end up pre-season as well a little bit and because I have been on the hard and grass courts for so long, rallies were always on the shorter side, I'd say, especially since Cincinnati anyway and it was mild and I had a desire to work again especially in fitness because the matches didn't allow me to extend the rallies as much, you know, to work on playing longer points and that, obviously, is what you need on clay maybe.”

Despite his strong performance in his first match on clay, a straight-sets thumping of Richard Gasquet, Federer is still very much wait and see about his chances. In any case, he’ll be happy to advance and have a chance to work on those aforementioned touch points some more when he faces Gael Monfils on Thursday.

Beyond that, who knows?

“We'll see,” he said. “Maybe it will be just one game in Paris and it was all for nothing. Still, I think it helps for any surface, you know, to be really tough when the rallies go long. And I feel very strong right now. And obviously we worked on that in December already.”

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