Roger Federer reveals he 'got fooled' as he rushed to judgment on certain players
09/20/2024 04:05 PM
Roger Federer has stepped back into the tennis limelight at the Laver Cup in Berlin and he has been offering up some revealing comments about how the game is changing.
Federer’s role as one of the masterminds behind the Laver Cup has seen him take a prominent role in the events in the German capital and he has been serving up some interesting views about the direction the sport is heading in.
After calling time on his career at the 2022 Laver Cup, Federer has become a tennis fan and he believes the players who play fearless tennis are not likely to be rewarded.
“The guys and also the ladies are going to start hitting bigger forehands and backhands, be more fearless because they realise the reward is there,” said 20-time Grand Slam champion Federer.
“The best movers are the best players and you can see that. The mentally fittest, physically strongest and fastest are the best players.
“It’s not so much about technique any more. I’ve got fooled enough in the last 10, 15, 20 years where I think, ‘I’m not sure about this technique’ but with racket technology and string technology, you can iron those problems out and so long as you hit hard and nice through the ball, everything is possible in tennis to be honest.
“The game is where it was, but just a step higher. I always feel like it keeps on going up.
“Perhaps just a lack of variation but that’s because we have all double-handers (on the backhand side) these days and they don’t use the slice as much.
“Naturally, we don’t see as many drop shots. (Carlos) Alcaraz and (Daniil) Medvedev try to add it to their game, which I think is a great play but you need to train it a lot – the transition game.
“For the most part, I enjoy watching tennis still today and it’s always going to be in a safe place because tennis is a wonderful sport.”
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Federer was also asked about a shot he mastered during his time at the top, as he admitted the single-handed backhand may soon be a relic of the sport’s past.
Most young players are taught to hit double-handed backhands from a young age as it is an easier shot to master, with Federer suggesting role models are needed to change the trend and shift it back to single-handed backhands.
“I guess a lot of it comes from coaching. Two things: It would be great to have world No 1 and world No 2 with the one-hander, which we don’t have right now so that’s not going to inspire the generation of playing with the one-hander.
“Juniors tend to look towards the best players in the world and if you see the double-hander then you think that is the way moving forward even though it might not be and then I just think it’s the coaches around the world who might realise some players play better with a one-hander rather than a two-hander.
“Do you ever take your hand off the double-hander? That’s the question. The coach needs to know and the player needs to have the urge to try it out like I did.
“I do think for sure the one-handed backhand still has a space in the modern game. Of course, you can fight so much more with the double-hander on the return and in defence, while maybe the one-hander can be a lot more difficult.
“What I’m also seeing nowadays is double-handed players have a much better slice as well which I feel was not always the case 20 years ago when I came on Tour.
“Be interesting to see. Be sad to see less and less one-handers.”
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