At his last press conference in 2018, Roger Federer also gave an outlook on the new season – and his schedule.
Asked about a possible longer break in the season, the Swiss already became enthusiastic during the week. It would be great, “I could only practice volley for a few months – or just serve and volley,” said Federer, even if he limited that you didn’t know whether the rest of the game would suffer.
Thoughts that are utopias anyway, because currently only a few weeks remain, consisting of vacation and training, until it starts again. Federer will play again at the end of the year, on 30 December the Hopman Cup match against Great Britain is on the programme.
Federer already has ideas as to how his tennis will look in 2019. “I would like to go back to the net more often”, he announced a training focus in the off-season. “And, of course, I want to whip the forehand through properly again” – a thing that was not possible due to a hand injury. A decisive point for the preparation was also whether he would play on clay in 2019, 2017 and 2018 he had completely skipped this part of the season.
Federer most recently hinted that his limited deployment plan in the last two years had also had its downsides. After all, he felt the pressure to do well in the few tournaments he played.
So it’s quite possible that the 20-times Major-Champ will play more next year, regardless of the sand decision. “In Shanghai I had extreme muscle soreness, in London I was physically at my best. That means I have to play enough to stay in rhythm.”
Already after his tournament victory in Basel, Federer had surprisingly taken part in the Masters tournament in Paris. Matches would bring him more than further training, he said at the time.