Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships: Roger Federer avoids the clay to mould 2017 campaign

DUBAI // His wait for grand slam No 18 was five years long, but Roger Federer dares to dream of more and will cut down on his clay-court commitments this season in a bid to arrive fresh at Wimbledon.

Federer, who defeated Rafael Nadal in the Australian Open final last month for his first major title since winning his 17th grand slam at 2012 Wimbledon, has won only once on the clay courts of Roland Garros.

Looking ahead, the Swiss, who will celebrate his 36th birthday in August, does not believe he has much of a chance of adding a second French Open and hence, he might not make too many appearances during the European clay-court season.

“You dare to dream, sure,” Federer said yesterday ahead of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, when asked about his hopes of adding to his collection of grand slam trophies.

“This win [at the Australian Open] has been so amazing that I’m still riding the wave. But then, clearly, the goal will be eventually Wimbledon, where I know that this is going to be where I am going to have my best chance and I hope to be at a 100 per cent.”

Federer has made finals at Wimbledon since his triumph in 2012, in 2014 and 2015, losing to Novak Djokovic on both occasions.

The Serb also beat him in the 2015 US Open final.

Federer’s last final at the French Open came in 2011, when he lost to Rafael Nadal for a fourth time.

He did make the semis in 2012, but has two quarter-finals and a fourth round in his three visits to Paris since.

Outside the grand slams, only one of his last 13 titles (Istanbul, 2015) since his 2012 Wimbledon triumph have come on clay.

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He has appeared in 26 ATP Tour finals during this period, and only two of those were on clay – the 2015 Istanbul Cup and the Rome Masters.

It is not too hard then to understand why no clay court tournament, bar the French Open, appears on his tentative schedule for 2017.

“I know the French’s going to be hard just because I would have to put in so much work in the clay-court season to be really perfectly ready for the French, and even than there’s no guarantee,” said Federer.

“So I have to ask myself the question: How much am I going to put into it, into the French Open?

“I think Wimbledon, US Open, I’ll always have chances as long as I am playing and I am healthy.

“I think just the courts suit me well there, speed and everything. It comes very natural.”

For the time being, though, Federer is looking forward to starting his Dubai campaign, a tournament he has won seven times.

This week, it could be the first time he will on back-to-back days since Halle last June and the world No 9, who skipped the post-Wimbledon part of the 2016 season to allow his injured knee to recover, is keen to find out how his body copes.

“I hope we are going to get into this problem, that I will have to play every day,” he said.

“It means I am winning matches.

“But like I said early on in this season, or at the end of last year, it’s going to take me some time, until probably April, to feel my best.

“Then I would have played best-of-five set matches in Australia, back-to-back matches in Dubai and maybe some in Indians Wells and Miami, and then after Miami, I would really know where I am at.

“So I still feel like maybe it’s still some work in progress for me – just getting to understand how the body is going to react, how much load can the body take.”

arizvi@thenational.ae

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