After Miami triumph, what are Federer’s plans for the clay swing?

The ATP is currently experiencing one-man dominance and a uniquely competitive streak simultaneously. While World No 1 Novak Djokovic has won each of the past three majors, every single ATP tournament in the first three months of 2019 had a different winner. That was until last Sunday. Roger Federer became the first player to win two ATP tournaments this year as he beat John Isner to win his fourth Miami Open.

It was the Swiss maestro’s 28th ATP Masters 1000 title, which keeps himthird on the all-time list behind Rafael Nadal (33) and Djokovic (32). That particular list is not one Federer would have any intentions or aspirations of topping once the Big Three have all hung up their boots and raquets. It’s the one with Grand Slam titles, which Federer currently sits atop with 20 that matters the most to him - and the large chunk of the sport’s followers and analysts. While the Swiss couldn’t defend his Australian Open title in January, he would be happy with how the season has transpired since then.

He won his 100th career title by bagging the Dubai Open in February, and has since made the finals of both the ATP 1000 events - losing the Indian Wells final to Dominic Thiem. Following the win in Miami, Federer has swapped places with Thiem in the ATP rankings, as he returned to No. 4, behind Djokovic, Nadal and Alexander Zverev, with the Austrian now fifth in the world. These ranking are going to be critical - and are likely to be reshuffled - going into the clay court season over the next two months. And with Federer’s least lucrative part of the calendar beginning, what can we expect from him in the clay swing? The 2009 Roland Garros champion, who played his last French Open final in 2011, has skipped the previous two clay swings in their entirety - and hasn’t played Roland Garros since 2015. He missed most of the clay season in 2016 owing to injury, and chose to skip it over the next couple of years in a bid to prepare for Wimbledon by giving his aging body a well-deserved rest. Even so, Federer has already confirmed that he would be participating in the French Open and the Madrid Masters this year.

And given that his body is a year older, and he has played more matches heading into April than he did last year, what has changed the Swiss’ mind? When the announcement was made at the start of this year that he would play Roland Garros this year, it was interpreted as perhaps Federer bidding farewell to the tour and hence choosing to play at the French one last time. However, he has already expressed a desire to give a shot at Olympic Gold in singles in Japan next year, whichmeans that Federer is here for at least another couple of seasons. Therefore, the decision to participate in the clay swing - even if it’s just the two events that he has committed to - could mean that he feels that he still has a shot at winning on the surface. Or perhaps he feels that even participating in Madrid and Paris would be better for him going into the grass swing.

Last year, Federer played no competitive tennis for two and a half months, from the last week of March till the second week of June. He only won the Stuttgart Open during the grass swing, losing the Halle final to Borna Coric and them coming up short against Kevin Anderson in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon after be two sets to love up. Perhaps Federer felt that it was lack of match sharpness that prevented him from performing at his best on his preferred surface, and hence it could be a strategic decision to take part at the Madrid Masters and Roland Garros. The clay swing is expected to be dominated by Nadal once again this year, after the Spaniard pulled out of Miami and had to withdraw after reaching the semifinals at Indian Wells as well. However, there are at least three other players who would be eying to challenge the dominance of the World No 2 on his beloved clay.

Djokovic has the unique opportunity to hold four majors at the same time once again. He is the only player to do so in the open era, when the four Grand Slam events have been played on three different surfaces, and could add to that monumental achievement by doing it again. Djokovic also knows that Nadal is his closest challenger as things stand - even if the Australian Open final underlined the distance between them, at least on the hard courts. Hence, overcoming him on clay, something he has done in the past, would make him the undisputed champion of the men’s game. Thiemand Zverev are the two younger challengers to the Big Three, and over the next two months to Nadal’s rule on clay.

Zverev already has two ATP Masters 1000 titles on clay - Rome 2017 and Madrid 2018 - while Thiem has made the semis and final at Roland Garros in 2017 and 2019 respectively. The Austrian also has three wins over Nadal on clay - two of them at the ATP Masters 1000 events over the last two seasons. And now with Federer participating in at least two clay events, he too would be in themix among those contending for silverware during the clay swing.