The schedule was too tough and it was about to come: Roger will skip the 2012 Paris Masters due to some “injuries”.
It started from Shanghai
It was clear that something was not right from the Shanghai Masters where the Maestro arrived completely unprepared from a phisycal and mental point of view.
Shanghai was an important tournament for Roger as getting to the quarters would have allowed him to reach the incredible milestone of being world no.1 for 300 weeks. But it wasn’t Federer at his best to struggle with Wawrinka and to be completely outplayed by Murray.
Something wrong in Basel
In Basel Roger wasn’t also at his best. He defeated low ranked players (struggling a lot with Bellucci) with a “below the par tennis”. Actually comparing to his phenomenal standards he was playing a mediocre tennis.
The final with Del Potro wasn’t any different. The Maestro was as slow as ever, grumpy, nervous, clearly aware he was miles away from his best. Once again Roger (thanks also to a very effective service) managed to drag Del Potro to the tiebreak of the decider, but that was it.
Au revoir Paris
Being is such mental and physical conditions, after a 2 hours and 44 minutes final, with the World Tour Finals in 1 week time and… given the fact that Roger was alrady at home (!)… the Swiss decided not to play in Paris.
“It’s the only right decision for me,” he said. “I had some niggling stuff and I didn’t want to take a chance obviously before the World Tour Finals. I need some time to prepare.”
“I had one of the best weeks of my life last year,” he added. “The fans were amazing, and the last thing I want to do is mislead any fans. This is really just a last-minute decision.”
Lucky Loser Hanescu will replace Roger.
