Roger Federer is all set to return on clay after 4-years. The clay season is about to start and after a long time, all eyes would be on Federer instead of Rafael Nadal. Clay court is considered to be the weakest surface for the 20-time grand slam champion. This often leads to split observation about Roger's success on clay. Is clay, a weak point for Federer? Or is his success on clay has been overshadowed by the brilliance of Rafael Nadal on the surface?
With the coming of the clay season, let's review Federer's career on the red-dirt.
Federer is undoubtedly the greatest tennis player of all time but the Swiss could manage to win only one title at the Roland Garros. But the 37-year-old would certainly have conquered multiple titles in Paris if Nadal would not have been there at his peak. Nadal has defeated Federer 13 times out of their 15 meetings on clay. He has unquestionably been dominated by the Spaniard, who is also known as the King of Clay.
Federer conquered his 101st ATP title last week had most of his success on hard as well as grass court. But his success on the clay court is also remarkable. The world no. 4 secured his only title at Roland Garros in 2009. But the Swiss ace has had multiple impressive runs at the French Open. He made it to a number of French Open finals (2006, 2007, 2008 and 2011) in his career.
Federer has a total of 11 clay titles with a 211-66 winning record. He has a winning percentage of over 76 percent.
Federer can be ranked in the top-10 rankings of the best clay-court players of all time. If it would not have been grass or hard court then also Federer could have been in the hall-of-fame with his clay court results.
Federer has confirmed that he will play the 2019 clay season but is not sure about how well he would perform after a long break from the clay court. He had a good start in 2019 on the hard courts he would hope to continue his form on the clay too.
“I really want to go into the clay playing pressure-less, pressure-free. If things don’t go well, then I can say maybe that was expected, and if they do go well, then I’m definitely excited. And then when the stakes get really important, I might be able to play some nice tennis on clay again, ” said Federer.
