View From The Baseline: Roger Federer needs to enhance Wimbledon legacy – not focus on regaining number one ranking
After falling to Milos Raonic in five sets in a Wimbledon semi-final last year, as well as missing the second half of 2016 due to injury, everyone thought that seeing Federer winning another Grand Slam or climbing back to the top of the ATP rankings was almost impossible.
But the Fed Express beat all the odds after clinching the Australian Open title by defeating his rival Rafael Nadal to become the second-oldest winner of a Grand Slam at the age of 35, behind only Ken Rosewall, followed by winning the first ATP 1000 title of the year in Indian Wells.
Looking fresher than ever physically, and showing massive improvement on his backhand along with having his serve and forehand firing, Wimbledon and the US Open suddenly offer realistic prospects of a 19th and perhaps even 20th career Grand Slam.
On the other hand, Federer is only a handful of points from top five now with the biggest two titles of the season so far, and, given the fact that he only has to defend Wimbledon semi-final’s points until the end of the year, the Swiss Maestro seems to have a free run at world number 1.
Now Federer needs to ask himself the question that he probably didn’t expect at the start of the year: “Shall I make a run for world number one to add another record of becoming the oldest top-ranked player in the history of ATP? Or shall I keep playing a measured schedule and aim for Wimbledon and the US Open?”
Federer’s priorities seem to be clear to all tennis fans. He clearly prioritises grand slam titles over ranking, but the thing that he may think of doing is to go for both to complete his fairytale comeback…and that’s the tricky decision that he needs to avoid.
Going for world number one will require playing more tournaments to add more points. At the age of 35, and given the injuries he had in 2016, playing a deeper schedule involving more clay tournaments might undermine the freshness of his body going to Wimbledon.
There’s no question that Wimbledon should remain Federer’s number one target in the remainder of 2017, with the form that he showed in the Australian Open and Indian Wells, the variety he added to his game mixing between baseline and serve and volley games, Federer looks to have the full package to add an eighth title in Wimbledon.
This doesn’t mean that he shouldn’t care about rankings at all. Adding reasonable amount of points will help him to move to the top four and maybe top two (depending on how Djokovic will recover in the clay season), which may help him to get a decent draw in Wimbledon.
Playing one of the three ATP 1000 events on clay followed by Roland Garros may give Federer the perfect balance between adding more points and keeping his body fresh, before travelling to Halle and start preparing for the grass season.
Follow me on Twitter
