Roger Federer is always front and center this time of year courtesy the Laver Cup.
Having been a player for the majority of the event’s existence, it’s been an interesting transition to see him purely as a spokesperson, tournament director and ambassador of the tournament the last few years.
With that, when Federer speaks, people listen. He’s a long way from giving speeches after winning titles and so its his range of discussion topics that’s become as expansive as his strokes.
The hot topic in men’s tennis currently is the dominance of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. Federer gave a glowing review of how these two have successfully collected the baton from him, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
“I think we all knew they were gonna be good, I think we knew they were gonna be great most likely,” Federer said. “I don’t think we expected this kind of dominance right out of the gates. It’s really impressive, I must admit. It’s amazing for the game that they’ve played back-to-back-to-back-to-back finals with French, Wimby, Cincy, US.
“These are the biggest stages that we have in our sport, so, they’ve made a name for themselves.”
Federer did note, however, that the challenge lies in carrying on at this level for many years to come. He spoke of how hard it was for himself to maintain his level for as long as he did and the challenges that emerge with new players proving themselves as real threats.
Federer Credits Slower Surfaces For Alcaraz, Sinner Dominance
Making an appearance on former U.S. Open champion Andy Roddick’s podcast Served, Federer did make some controversial comments expanding on the game’s hot new rivalry. In particular, Federer credited slower surfaces for being a factor in Sinner and Alcaraz reaching finals repeatedly.
“Is there a need to correct court surface to bring in different elements of the game?” Roddick asked.
“Yes,” Federer said emphatically. He provided an example from the Laver Cup where Reilly Opelka — one of the best servers currently — kick served on the ad side of an indoor hard court and Casper Ruud simply stood back and hit a cross-court backhand winner from hip height.
“It should be a little bit more difficult to do that. I think that’s why we the tournament directors need to fix it, what we would want to see is Alcaraz and Sinner figure it out on lightning fast and then have the same match on super slow and see how that matches up.
“Now, everybody plays similar because the tournament directors have allowed — with the ball speed and court speed — that every week is basically the same. That’s why you can go from winning French, Wimbledon, US Open and just play the same way.”
“I understand the safety net tournament directors see for making the surface slower,” Federer explained. “For the weaker player, they have to hit an extra amazing shot to beat Sinner whereas, if it’s quick, he can only blast a few at the right time and he gets past.
“That’s where the tournament directors are kinda like, ‘I like having Sinner and Alcaraz in the finals, it kinda works for the game.'”
Federer did conclude by expressing he did feel the sport would find the right balance and figure it out eventually.
Roddick Proposes Tool To Address Slower Surfaces
The former World No. 1 explained how in the Davis Cup there was a tool that measured if a court was too fast. The issue Roddick presented is that there’s nothing to measure if a court is too slow.
Back when the likes of Boris Becker and Pete Sampras ruled the roost, serve-and-volley games were in vogue. It was to the point where the sport clearly felt the need to address the imbalance with a device that helped them measure when the advantage was too much.
Now, it appears the game has gone too far the other way and let everything be too slow. Pictures from Wimbledon decades ago compared to know highlight the difference. In the pictures at tournament’s end from the 80s and 90s, the service box has lost all its grass with players consistently approaching the net.
In today’s images, it’s the entire baseline that has lost its grass with the net area looking unblemished. The rate at which Alcaraz and Sinner, in particular, can retrieve balls from one corner to the next is astonishing.
It would be interesting to get Federer’s thoughts on how he felt the balance between fast and slow was during ‘The Big Three’ era.
There was already talk in the 2010s that surfaces were becoming more homogenized and helping facilitate the “all-court” players that were emerging more consistently.
For now, at the end of the day, Alcaraz and Sinner are clearly the dominant duo of this generation with the conditions presented. We’ll see if Federer’s words have any impact in changing that.
