King Roger has to rest. After an incredible come back that culminated with his 7th Wimbledon and an inspiring return to world no.1, it’s time to take a break.
From Roger
After helping to defeat the Dutch team in Amsterdam he said “I need a holiday badly, I’m wounded, tired, and exhausted and need some time off right now and see where I go from here. Nothing has been decided for the rest of year, even though there is a plan in place, that plan might change. I need to go back to drawing board to see what’s important.”
When asked about his participation to the Davis Cup he replied “For me it’s more about taking part with my team-mates, I enjoy being with them, and that’s about it really. I have a good time and my team-mates are all my best friends – I don’t see them regular basis on tour and we have a great friendship and it’s always a lot of fun.”
No Asian campaign (once again)?
This situation is no different that the previous year’s one when Roger decided to pull out from the Asian swing to recover and start his march toward the world no.1. And that was a very good move.
At this point the programme is quite packed as follows
500 ATP Tokio/Beijing1-Oct
1000 ATP Shanghai 7-Oct
500 ATP Basel22-Oct
1000 ATP Paris29-Oct
World Tour Finals05-Nov
Year End World no.1
Roger is 1000pts behind Nole in the year to date rankings. This means that if he doesn’t play in Asia and Nole is successful over there + the Serb has a good season finale in Europe… Roger will not be world no.1 at the end of the year.
But, Nole definately has to play in Asia (his sponsor is Uniqlo… Japanese) and playing two tournaments in Asia to then come back to Europe to play 3 in a row (and the last one is the WTF) is not easy from a mental and phisical point of view (Nole should then recover from the Jet Lag… twice!)
Prediction?
You know what? It wouldn’t be strange if Roger pulls out the Asian swing. The Maestro is becoming wiser and wiser with his body management and he knows that a nice 1 month vacation would be highly beneficial for him for the season end.
So….? Roger talks about going back to the drawing board, but this is more about playing chess with his opponents (let’s say Nole at this time).
Waiting for a communicate he won’t play in Asia… And waiting for seeing Djokovic next move.
Game on!
