Roger Federer has revealed his schedule for 2016 and has made the bold move to not play in any clay court tournaments prior to the French Open.
Next year there will be three Masters events on clay in Madrid, Monte Carlo and Rome, but the 17-time Grand Slam champion has opted to skip all of them. It will be the first time that Federer won’t be playing in any of the three tournaments since 1998. Instead the 34-year-old will have a two-month break between the Indian Wells Masters in March and the French Open in May.
The calendar indicates that Federer’s key focus will be on the grass and hard-court tournaments. The Swiss will play two events on grass prior to Wimbledon in Stuttgart and Halle. It is the first time that he will play two grass-court tournaments in the lead up to Wimbledon since 2000.
After Wimbledon, Federer will play three hard-court events before the US Open. He will start off in Toronto followed by the Rio Olympics. Federer has won two Olympic medals in his career (gold in the 2008 doubles draw and silver in the 2012 singles). He will also play at the Cincinnati Masters in August when he will bid to win the title for the third consecutive year. Since 2005 Federer has won the Masters tournament on seven occasions.
In February Federer will play in the ABN World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam. It will be the first time he has played there since 2013. Despite not playing any tournaments on Clay outside of the French Open, the 34-year-old will still play in 16 tournaments which is the same amount as this year (not counting the Davis Cup and ATP Finals). Federer’s planned 2016 schedule is the following:-
Here is my tentative 2016 schedule. Happy holidays and thanks for all your support! 🗓🎾✌ pic.twitter.com/b3TtZCmYQh
— Roger Federer (@rogerfederer) December 17, 2015
