Roger Federer has skipped another tournament, the upcoming Masters 1000 Rogers Cup in Toronto, to preserve his longevity. This is a continuing trend for the 20-time Grand Slam champion and 36-year-old. He also skipped the French Open to focus on Wimbledon, where he was upset by Kevin Anderson in the quarterfinals.
Roger Federer is chasing Grand Slams with Rogers Cup withdrawal, and that’s fine
Federer won’t be on the court when the Rogers Cup gets underway, which is the best thing for him with the US Open at the end of August.
Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
Typically, the professional tennis circuit involves the best players hitting multiple notable ATP events prior to the upcoming Grand Slam to keep themselves sharp with some court time on the surface. The US Open is coming up, which means hard courts, and Federer, as usual, stands a decent chance at making a deep run.
That’s true whether he competes in a couple warm-up tournaments or not. The simple fact is that Federer doesn’t need two full tournament’s worth of practice to be ready to play at his best when the US Open begins at the end of August. He’s simply far beyond that point.
Yes, his window of contention for Grand Slam titles will be closing eventually. But it’s not that big of a deal that he went out in the quarters at Wimbledon — it’s the premiere Grand Slam event and attracts the absolute best. Anderson and the other top power players were all performing exceptionally well on those grass courts.
It wasn’t Federer’s best performance. And his coach believes part of that is due to him playing back-to-back tournaments before Wimbledon, in Stuttgart and Halle.
That shouldn’t worry anyone going into the US Open. Federer will be as fresh as he can be going into the final Slam of the year, and according to him and his team, he’s not dealing with any injuries in particular. He’s also missed the Rogers Cup in five of the past seven years. It would be nice to see him in Toronto, but it’s understandable why he continues to make these decisions.
Right now, it’s all about winning Grand Slams. Those other events, particularly the Masters 1000 events, are big enough deals for just about everyone in the field, but they don’t need to be for Federer (nor do they need to be for, say, Serena Williams, who will also not be participating in the Rogers Cup).
Federer’s style of play is conducive to longevity to begin with — he’s not blowing out his knees by selling out on power serves, and his game has always been about superior shot placement. He’s a technical player, and he’s got some of the best professionals in the world advising him on how to maximize what is certainly the twilight of his career.
And it wouldn’t be surprising at all if it ends up winning him another couple Grand Slams by the end of it. His era is nearing its end, and there are enough promising young players to make that acceptable for the world of tennis. But he’s not going anywhere just yet — he’s just being smarter.
The Rogers Cup begins on Monday and features many other top-ranked players like Rafael Nadal, Alexander Zverev, Juan Martin del Potro, Novak Djokovic and more. On the women’s side, the usual top names, sans Serena, will be in action: Simona Halep, Caroline Wozniacki, Sloane Stephens, Angelique Kerber and more.
It’s worth watching, with or without Federer, but if all goes as planned, you’ll be seeing a fresh Federer when the US Open gets underway later this month. He plans to play at the Cincinnati Masters beginning Aug. 13, and then rest until the Open on Aug. 27.
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