Former World No. 1 Roger Federer has claimed he cannot beat his young opponents by playing from the baseline and that’s why he has adapted his game accordingly.
In his continuing efforts to dominate the sport, 19-time Grand Slam champion Federer has opted for an out and out aggressive strategy as he simply can’t compete with the likes of Alexander Zverev from the baseline. Federer, who won the Hopman Cup on Saturday, shared his views regarding the state of his game after his hard fought win over the German in an interview posted on the tournament’s official website.
While, he acknowledged his growing age was one of the main factors behind his decision to opt for an aggressive approach, it wasn’t the only reason. The other contributor behind the move was to shorten points so that more and more energy could be conserved in order to keep him fresh for a full-blooded assault during the business end of a tournament.
“I’ve got to cut down the points,” Federer said.
“I can’t be playing long rallies five meters behind the baseline all the time.”
“I mean, I could but the other guys are better at it.”
“I’m better maybe when we’re close to each other.”
“I was trying to play as aggressive as possible [against Zverev] and the court plays fast if you do it the right way. If you do it the wrong way, you can run into a lot of trouble.”
“As it was working out well, I thought ‘I’ll keep doing it until I have to fix it again’ but it never happened so I was able to cruise all the way through.”
The Swiss 36-year-old also disclosed that he has not only made changes in his tactics for tournaments, but has altered his practice schedule as well.
“When you’re younger you have to put in the hours to be able to tell yourself ‘I can stay out on a court for four hours and train for 10 days straight’,” Federer added.
“You have to prove it to yourself that you can do it. It’s more of a mental thing in my opinion.”
