ATP: Roger Federer receives backing from Jim Courier

Jim Courier, former world number one and multiple Grand Slam winner, sees no unfair preference for Roger Federer at Grand Slam tournaments.

Roger Federer didn’t really want to say anything about a causa that he doesn’t see as a causa at all. That was something the Swiss player noticed at his press conference after his success against Dominic Thiem at the ATP Finals a little more than two weeks ago. Julien Benneteau was the topic and a possible preference for Federer in the match schedules, especially at the Australian Open.

But the 20 times major winner did not want to let the topic rest. First, Benneteau’s observations, with which Federer also gets on very well, were taken out of context. Furthermore, it is by no means the case that he, Federer, always actually gets his wishes fulfilled. At the US Open, for example, the organizers would not have scheduled him for the day he had specified as the desired date. So why the excitement?

Roger Federer gets help from several sides. “The biggest stars have always been set on the biggest places,” says Mats Merkel, who has been on the tour as a coach for years, to tennisnet. “And so was Andre Agassi.” Merkel thinks it’s perfectly all right.

Jim Courier, himself a multiple Grand Slam champion, also sees no reason to criticise the US or Australian tennis federations. “I think Roger Federer is getting exactly the treatment he deserves, measured by his importance to the sport, the fans and the broadcasting TV stations.” The USTA and Tennis Australia would not treat Federer any differently, just because he works closely with the two federations in the Laver Cup.

Julien Benneteau would also have said a lot of nice things about Roger Federer in that interview – only the short remark about the advantageous appointments for the third place in the world rankings got stuck.