Roger Federer At Laver Cup. (Image Credit: Roger Federer via Instagram)
Swiss tennis legend Roger Federer has brought up strong criticism of the current state of tennis, decrying how the court surfaces have become homogenized and slow, a shift, Federer would maintain, has skewed the opportunities offered to the established tennis legends such as Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. On the Served with Andy Roddick podcast during the Laver Cup weekend in San Francisco, Federer also hinted that the conditions created by tournament directors are changing to not provide players with a challenge on how to adapt, but instead working to drive out variety and predictability.
He argued that in older times players had to adapt their games to different court speeds, lightning fast grass or hardcourts required precision and hard hitting and time, whereas clay required patience and planning. On the contrary, Federer claimed, it is common practice today to have tournaments that tend to be solver in nature, which results in consistency in the outcome of matches and leads to less excitement in the results. This change, according to him, may be saving the elite players, as those who are advantaged by the hand of athleticism, consistency and play on the base, may dominate in situations where the advantage of more aggressive or varied styles is negated.
In fact, in recent Grand Slams, Alcaraz and Siner have managed to dominate the Grand Slam, between them, they have won all the major titles in the last two years, with Alcaraz not having gotten his hands on the Australian open and Sinner yet to win his first French Open. Federer posited that in a time where there existed greater variety in the speed of surface, such players would be challenged more in the process of adjusting their game. Nevertheless, Federer did not disregard the reasons for slower courts such as the safety concerns, the protection of players against extremes, and injuries prevention. In spite of the critique made by Federer, counter examples are also there at the Laver Cup, Taylor Fritz defeats Alcaraz in straight sets 6-3, 6-2, which is a part of Team World rebouncing against Team Europe.
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