Federer Enjoys Well-Deserved Rest Entering Clay Season

Last week at the Masters Series-Miami Federer brought his record to 28-1 on the year with his second consecutive NASDAQ-100 Open title. One underplayed stat was the Swiss became the first player ever to win the Masters Series events in Indian Wells and Miami back-to-back in consecutive years -- ho hum, just another Federer record.

The Swiss is now training to end his frustration at the French Open, seeking to join Andre Agassi and Rod Laver as the only players to win all four Grand Slam events in the Open Era.

Federer will for the first time in years play all three claycourt Masters Series events at Monte Carlo, Rome and Hamburg looking for that extra edge on the dirt entering Roland Garros, and says the extra events won't be a strain on his system.

"I think I know myself well enough now," Federer says on his French Open preparation. "I think the toughest part would be if I would be in the finals of Rome, because (back-to-back) Masters Series, that's never an easy thing to do, especially if they're so close to each other. I've really put my plan out that if I play well, I can handle it physically. If I'm not playing well, I can always take a wildcard here or there. I absolutely want to play all three Masters Series, especially this year. That's the big plan. Yes, I do believe the schedule is right."

The Australian Open title is already under his belt in 2006, and Federer's uber-legion of fans are already murmuring about the possibility of a rare grand slam sweep, but the Swiss says that is a long way off.

"The calendar slam is not the focus right now, but the other one (career slam) obviously is, because I already had -- I made three out of four," Federer said. "So it's one more to go but, I guess for me, the toughest one. I'm obviously already now focusing on the French, to a certain degree...It's obviously a big goal because I know what it would do to my career."

Federer says the next few weeks will be comprised of getting acclimated to the clay while also getting some down time.

"I'll get on clay, go to Monte Carlo early, and prepare there," Federer said. "Maybe have a few off days here and there."

The Swiss has put his country on the back-burner when it comes to Davis Cup, skipping this year's opening round which Switzerland lost, electing to rest for the Masters Series events. Federer says the priority right now is Slam titles and the No. 1 ranking, and Davis Cup can wait.

"For the rest of my career, (Davis Cup is) big," Federer said. "Right now, not so big. But I love Davis Cup, playing for my country. I represent it every day when I travel the world. But I can't have all goals, you know, winning Davis Cup, being No. 1, winning all Slams and all such things. So eventually it will be a big priority for me."