For someone who has a natural tendency for being aggressive from the get-go, a roofed arena with a low-bouncing court is the perfect combination for Roger Federer. And he certainly practises what he preaches. Moreover, the Swiss also gives more importance to the second half of the season than his fellow GOAT contenders.
The Basel tournament is his 'home' event, which he has won a whopping 10 times, and he has also done well at Madrid and Paris in the past. For Roger Federer, the season starts in earnest only at Wimbledon. That means he's usually fresher than his peers for the fall swing leading up to the year-end championships.
By contrast, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are often spent by the time the tour reaches the indoor circuit. He also handles the wind incredibly well, adjusting the height and width of his shots to account for the natural deviation. Neither of those factors are present indoors, which is why it is no surprise that Nadal has only two titles in the controlled environs of indoor courts. The man who is second to Roger Federer in indoor success is Novak Djokovic, who has proven to be one of the best defenders the game has ever seen.
The Serb plays flatter indoors than he does on other surfaces, and uses his solid baseline play to dictate terms from the middle of the court. Djokovic owns 13 indoor titles including five at the ATP Finals, and has proven to be a worthy challenger to Federer's indoor reign. However, he still has a long way to go before he can catch up to the Swiss. New User posted their first comment.
Log in. He can go inside the court with less problems than in the other surfaces. He can play inside the court. The ball doesn't move nothing, no windy. He has the chance to attack better in these conditions than in other surfaces. I was able to do what I was hoping to do: dominate from the baseline, play close to the baseline, serve well, take his time away. I was able to do that tonight.
Hasn't always worked. Well, obviously on clay and on grass, you have the bad bounces that come into play more, so it's harder maybe to play some half volleys off the baseline. Today I hit some crucial ones off my backhand side. In key moments I was able to stay put, not move backwards, to give myself time.
That helps on on the indoors, even though you do have the occasional bad bounce as well on the indoors. I don't know. Usually it just plays faster indoors than the other surfaces, so I think that's the biggest difference. Again, key for Roger is that he was able to stay close to the baseline, because the bounce is true and that indoors plays faster than outdoors, even though the O2 court is not so quick. Yes, no one is unbeatable on any surface and Roger has beaten Rafa a couple of times on clay after all.
But as Rafa will always be favoured on clay, so will Roger, or at least his type of game he is aging after all , always be favoured on an indoor hard court, be it slow or fast. The combination of a lower and truer bounce is what he needs to play the kind of style that is necessary to get the ball past Rafa without undoing himself by too many unforced errors. Enjoy our content? Join our newsletter to get the latest in sports news delivered straight to your inbox!
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