As he approaches the end of his career, Roger Federer has carefully chosen which tournaments to play in. The 38-year-old has prioritized the four Grand Slam events as he tries to finish his career with as many major titles as possible. This has led to the Swiss player skipping some ATP tournaments as he hopes to avoid injury and fatigue. Sources close to the 20-time Grand Slam champion indicate that he will miss most of the clay season and will only make an appearance at the French Open.
Federer will only play at the French Open this season
According to Swiss sports writer, Rene Stauffer, Federer will not play in the Masters competitions leading up to the French Open. In a recent tweet, Stauffer said Federer’s agent had denied rumors speculating that his client would appear at several clay tournaments. According to Tony Godsick, the 38-year-old will only play at the Roland Garros during the clay-court season. This means that the former world number one will miss an opportunity to win two titles which have eluded him in his illustrious career. The 38-year-old has never won the ATP 1000 Masters tournaments in Rome and Monte Carlo.
Just got the confirmation from Tony Godsick that rumours are not true that @rogerfederer will play Masters-Tournaments in Rome and Madrid 2020. Probably only Roland Garros on clay
— rene stauffer (@staffsky) February 13, 2020
Nadal could equal Federer’s Grand Slam this year
However, skipping the three Masters 1000 tournaments could help Federer rest and prepare for the French Open. He will have a seven-week breather between the last hard-court tournament and the Roland Garros. This will be the Swiss player’s second consecutive appearance at the French Open after missing out over the last couple of seasons. Before he played at the tournament last year, Federer’s last appearance had been in 2015. He missed the 2016 edition due to injury before skipping the tournament in 2017 and 2018. Last year he made it to the semifinals before losing to Rafael Nadal.
The 20-time Grand Slam champion will hope to stop Nadal from matching his Grand Slam total. The Roland Garros is the Spaniard’s best shot at equaling Federer’s record. The world number two has won the tournament a record 12 times. Federer has only won one French Open title in his career. The victory came at the 2009 edition of the tournament when he defeated Robert Soderling in the final. Nadal and Federer recently participated in a charity exhibition match in Cape Town. The Swiss player won the match which set a record for the most number of fans to ever attend a tennis event.
Roger Federer’s ranking and performance in 2020
Ranked world no.3, Federer played his last match on the 30th of January when he was overcome by Novak Djokovic 7-61 6-4 6-3 in the semifinal of the Australian Open.
Roger Federer’s most significant performance of this season was getting to the semi-finals at the Australian Open.
Roger Federer |
| Embed from Getty Images |
