"I'm not worried, the French is still too far away," said the Swiss.
actually you should be worried because if you keep playing like this, FRENCH IS ACTUALLY TOO FAR AWAY..

I'm pretty sick of him saying the French is far away. He's only playing one more tournament until then, so he doesn't have that long to find his game.

he'll reach FO SF minimum.

Amor, may be he is looking at it one match at a time? His focus has got to be on Madrid First, before he even starts thinking about the FO? He has to jump this hurdle first. Am sure he will find his game in Madrid.

Don't be too sure maxi, he lost to ranked 30+ Montanes just yesterday and I know nobody among the players who got their games back in just over a night, quite fast! Are you saying that just to show a strong face maxi?

Anyway that's what you want to think, in the meantime look at his possible opponents:

Possible encounter with Wawrinka in the fourth round
Possible encounter with either Gulbis or Montanes in the Quarterfinal
Possible encounter with either Ferrer or Baghdatis in Semifinal
and possible showdown with Rafa if both of them make it to the final.

rain,
stan the man in 3rd round..

opppsss..yeah that should be 3rd round, there is no 4th round :-/

Thanks clayking.

This guy Federer is a Champion. Even when he has been playing poorly, he knows how to focus on the positive, works hard, concentrates on what needs to be done, and moves forward. It's a class book success story on how to succeed. He already has loads of success, and he still believes. It's starts with the belief (a very powerful tool). Roger Federer is not just some new kid in town. He is still quite capable of creating a lot of damage out there. Don't kid yourselves! Maybe even go all the way in Madrid or RG... He believes, has a truck load of skills, the will to win, and the experience to back it up. Bring it ON! Go Rog. Do it! Just do it! :)

I don't know why roger's fans are so much in despair. after all beach volletball is not bvolleyball proper as much as ice hocky is not hocky. tennis on clay is not tennis as much. even then the genious did reach four finals on that surface and won one. remember mac telling that he will drop his pants if and when chang wins at big W. wished chang to win because i really wanted to see what mac has under his pants- the guy just returned from a tour defeating guyes 10-15 years junior to him. then remember ivan the terrible, never got a grass trophy. what about the other guyes like pete, jimmy, stefan- none got that far as my favourite roger. he can hang his racket now anytime he wants but we will always miss the touch, the class and the poise. who would tune in to watch beach volleyball when other balls are arround.

Roger will come back and come back as a phoenix rising. Vamos Roger

'tennis on clay is not tennis'?? May I know what bullshit is that?

So tennis on hard court is tennis then??

Roger himself sounded disappointed about his own performance on clay so far, and time is running out for him to rectify the situation before the French Open. Whatever we want to say or believe, it does not make any difference. The thing that make the difference is Roger himself, whether he can make use of this two weeks before the French Open to find his game.

H/court is the last of the surfaces to come into tennis, at one time there was only clay and grass - USO, AO and Wimbledon were all grass court GS, and RG was the first GS in the open era, to allow professionals to compete on there.

Hard courts took over because they are easy to maintain, that's why there are so many of them now. There were no hard courts at one time. Anyone who thins that clay court tennis is not real tennis knows nothing about the game.

Some Fed fans seem to be losing their grasp on reality. I don't know when anyone decided that clay court tennis is somehow an inferior form of the sport. Oh, now I get it! It's Fed fans who are desperate to demean the surface on which their one and only has not dominated. How convenient! If your guy doesn't play well on a surface, just consider it a less challenging surface and all will be well.

I can understand Fed fans feeling concerned and frustrated by his recent sub-par form, but trashing clay as a lesser surface as a means to somehow comfort themselves and prop up their guy, is not only factually wrong, but kind of absurd. Tennis is tennis no matter what the surface. They don't give less points for a grand slam win at RG than they do for a win at Wimbledon, AO or US Open. They all have the same stature and a win on any of them is still a grand slam win.

Please, to those Fed fans who are having such a difficult time, try to make a better argument that dissing the surface of clay.

Clay is the most grueling of all the surfaces. How convenient! Nadline is correct. Clay and grass were the first which means hard court tennis is not tennis. Meat head!

Even though tennis officially is Lawn Tennis, clay and grass court tennis is definitely the two most traditional forms of the game..

Sorry I meant traditional surfaces, the form is of course Lawn Tennis.

well my fellow rafans have said what is to be said..
but what i cannot understand is how can someone be this big moron and still like anything about tennis, even if that anything is fed???
and what does he compare with??
ice hockey and hockey???
those are two different sports for God's sake..
tennis is a single sport!!

newfangic, sounds like you are new to tennis, as I said earlier, RG was the first GS in the open era:

The French Open at Roland Garros is seen as the world's premier clay court event and was first contested back in 1891.

The tournament has been staged on the courts at the Roland Garros stadium since 1928 and was the first of the Grand Slam tournaments to join the "Open Era" in 1968.


http://www.lta.org.uk/watch/Grand-Slams/




Go on the internet and read up on the history of tennis, because it appears you could do with some knowledge of the game.

lol and it was specifically clay that save Fed's year last year! remember "Thank God clay is coming"?

i think he said that after the berdych match, didn't he??

acionescu,

Fed said "thank God the hard court season is over". And by jove he was right! because he went on to win madrid and FO. so what's the problem?

maxi, he said that this year..
after he lost to berdych!!

What really worries me is that Federer played WORSE against Montanes than he did against Gulbis!

He's actually going backwards, rather than getting better.

I'm not a doomsayer, but this really isn't a good sign, from any standpoint. Still, I think he'll most likely crank it up for the FO. I just... I can't help but feel like his semifinal streak is life support.

-Arvis

oh hey arvis..
sorry this is off topic..
but r u a wwe fan??

*laughs*

No, not even a little bit. WHY do you ask, anyways?

-Arvis

NNY, same people who refuse to look at the past (re: GOAT,H2H, etc..) conveniently pull up the past to degrade clay tourneys. But then again, they they also think they can have it both ways.

BTW newfang, if you do research or just google The French Open (Roland Garros). you'll see everyone is in accord with that it is THE most difficult to win period.

fan4tennis,

What else is new in the world? When it comes to the most rabid Fed fans, the argument always has to be on their terms, which means trashing clay court tournaments and grand slams as somehow inherently inferior, building up hard court tournamenst as somehow inherently superior and comparing a player to someone who is five years his senior and pretending that they are peers.

It's the same old nonsense and propaganda over and over again. I would that by now they would have come up with more creative and interesting arguments. You see what happens when their guy is in a slump and struggling. Then it's not about excuses or being in denial, it's the surface on which their guy is playing. So sad.

Fed fans have such unreal expectations for their guy. The guy is human and WILL come up short sometimes, like EVERYONE will. His SF streak will also come to an end, it might be sooner rather than later. Perhaps its best that some fans make their peace with that, the world will not stop spinning on its axis you know.

@zooni
i agree with you. when you get older, you can still play your best tennis from your younger days-not just as consistently. Chris Evert famously said that when you get older you have more bad days. Its just happening to Federer. Furthermore,he's a father now, so tennis isnt the majority of his life like it used to be.

All of feds fans, dont worry. The grass will bring his game back, I guarentee it. Federer at 65% capacity is till good enough to get to at least the finals of Wimbledon. I don't have very high expectationss for RG, but I'm not going predict an early exit either. He's been there too many times in the end for me to believe that in a major, he could be challenged by anyone other than Nadal.

sorry, replace challenged by "beaten consistently".

Zooni and tj600,

My sentiments exactly! I think its just so unfair the way Federer is being treated at the moment. I mean for ALL those wins he has pulled off over all those years and for ALL what he has contributed to tennis, I think the guy deserves some slack!!!....serioulsy!!!

Whatever he is now going through at least he has the courage to continue playing. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get up every morning for work REALLY feeling like you wish instead you were on holiday, or for whatever reason just not feeling that motivated anymore?!!! It is not easy at his age and with a new family to continue to keep focused and intense on tennis as before!!!! Some tennis fans will just have to adapt to the fact that Federer may no longer bear the passion for the sport like before.....so its time they all grow up and start to acknowledge that!!! Its time that perhaps someone else hold the reins for men's tennis and relieve Federer (and Rafa) of some of this pressure so he can find the right balance between his new life and his game!!!.......LEAVE FEDERER ALONE!!!!!.........except if you're only offering him support!!

......and this is coming from a DIE HARD Rafa fan!!!!!