20-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer has dismissed his chances of winning the French Open as he states his season starts on the grass this year.
The 39-year-old returned to competitive tennis at the Geneva Open on Tuesday where he suffered a shock loss in his opening match to Spain’s Pablo Andujar. The former world No.1 crashed out 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, after losing the last four games of the match. Ending his streak of winning 32 consecutive Tour matches in Switzerland. Geneva is only the second tournament Federer has played following a right knee injury which required two surgical procedures.
Despite his loss, the Swiss maestro is still planning to play at the upcoming French Open which he last won back in 2009. Prior to this year, he has only played at the event in one out of the five previous editions due to various reasons.
“Roland Garros is not the goal,” Federer said following his loss. “The goal is the grass. So I still have time.”
Federer admits that even somebody with his credentials has little chance of causing a shock in Roland Garros due to his lack of match play. Although back in 2017 he did win the Australian Open after missing the previous six months of the Tour due to injury. However, this time around he is far from confident about his chances on the European dirt.
“When you’ve played so little and you know where your level is at and I think you saw that today, how can I think of winning the French Open?” he said.
“So the moment you know you’re not going to win the French Open, it can’t be your goal, at least at my level. So I’m just realistic that I know I will not win the French. And whoever thought I would or could win it is wrong. Of course, crazier things might have happened, but I’m not so sure in the last 50 years that the French Open, somebody just rocked up at 40 years old and being out for a year and a half and just go on, just wins everything straight or in five sets, whatever you want to call it. So that’s why I know my limitations at the moment.”
Grass can’t come soon enough
Ever since starting his season at the Qatar Open in March Federer has outlined that his ultimate goal is to peak in time for the Wimbledon Championships. A tournament he has won a record eight times and finished runner-up to Novak Djokovic in the 2019 final.
Unfortunately for Federer due to the close proximity of the clay and grass-court swings, he had no choice but to play in the clay in order to get matches under his belt. His hope is the more players he plays, the quicker his form will improve over the coming weeks.
“I’ve said it several times that to me, really, the season starts on the grass,” he states.
“What’s important now is these next few weeks, regardless if you play tournaments or not, if you’re back on the tour or you’re practising again with top guys…. or you play a match, then you recover and you go back and forth, back and forth, do that many, many times, you start getting used to how it is and how it feels to be back on the Tour.”
Nevertheless, the expectations of Federer will be high given his resume in the sport. So far in his career he has won 103 ATP titles which is the second highest amount after Jimmy Connors. He has also spent 310 weeks as world No.1 and was recently named one of the highest-earning athletes in the world over the past year by Forbes Magazine.
“Sometimes it’s not fun when you know what your limitations are. And obviously it’s always difficult because people expect a lot for me and I have high expectations for myself. So when I walk out of a match like today (Tuesday in Geneva) and I feel like I’ve got to play so much better, it feels strange and it’s disappointing. But at the same time, this is the process I need to go through, and that’s why I can’t get too down on myself.” He explained.
The French Open main draw will get underway on May 30th. Although for Federer the sooner the grass court season begins the better.
