Roger Federer Has Made His 2013 Schedule And Miami And Basel Aren’t On It!?!?!

Hm that is interesting. My calendar say I will win Doha and take a vacation in my tank until the only part of the world I care about,

Asian Swing!

November 17th, 2012 at 10:46 am

That is a FANTASTIC schedule!

Hope rafa has a schedule that suits him and his body also!

November 17th, 2012 at 10:49 am

P.S:

Just realized that this LIMITS fed’s oppurtunities to gain points.

Till the USO hard court series swing in AUGUST he can ONLY gain in:

– AO: defending SF points

– Rome: defending SF points

– RG: defending SF points

– Halle: defending RU points

He’s DEFENDING ALOT of points!

November 17th, 2012 at 10:54 am

This rule is written by Federer himself, since he was on ATP council.

November 17th, 2012 at 10:58 am

^idioti. Fed doesn’t dictate rules on the ATP tour.

November 17th, 2012 at 11:27 am

As I pointed out on another site, this ‘ATP Master 1000 Reduction Rule’ is not designed for Federer. The rule exists ever since Master 1000 is introduced in 2009. It exists even before that with slightly different implications.

Other players have already got this complete exemption since it is installed:
2009 – Rainer Schuettler
2010 – Tommy Haas
2011 – Ivan Ljubicic
2012 – Ivan Ljubicic, Radek Stepanek, Juan Ignacio Chela

Next year, Tommy Haas, Mardy Fish and Jurgen Melzer will all get this complete exemption along with Federer. Federer is the first top 10 player to get it though:-)

November 17th, 2012 at 11:43 am

How do you know? He must have a hand in it.

Skipping Miami is stupid, Montréal-Cincinatti is even harder.

November 17th, 2012 at 11:58 am

It’s not too different than this year. He is still playing Rotterdamn, Dubai and Halle. He hasn’t played Monte Carlo for a while. Taking Miami off is a change but it makes sense if he is playing Rotterdamn and Dubai. Then to play IW plus Miami is a lot. In some ways it’s a bigger surprise he’s scrapping Basel since it’s his “home” event, but there were hints about that this year, that he’d had some issues with the tournament.

November 17th, 2012 at 1:00 pm

this makes alot of sense. the Miami surface is like playing on sandpaper so he forgoes it. its a big pt loss but he can manage. dubai + rotterdam = miami pts wise and he is more likely to win omn those faster indoor courts. monte carlo hasn’t been an M1000 for a few years so no great loss. he’ll still be playing madrid, rome and paris on clay. Basel is only a bit of surprise for sentimental reasons as it is his hometown tourney but the math makes perfect sense. skipping Basel allows him to compete in both Shanghai and the paris indoors both of which are M1000 vs Basel being and atp500. this year he played Basel but did not play either Shanghai or Paris. that is a maximum pt differential of 1500. that’s a lot. and again remember people that defending pts is a bit of an illusion. it matters for the player in questions rolling ranking but as far as final all that matters is how many pts have been accumulated by the end of the year. thus the question is can Fed be #1 next year with the schedule that he has? the answer is if he does well enough he will.

November 17th, 2012 at 1:30 pm

What a smart guy. This is a secret that phenomenal career.

November 17th, 2012 at 1:32 pm

tfs76, “this year he played Basel but did not play either Shanghai or Paris.”

He did play Shanghai, and got to semis, this year. It was last year that both Nole and Fed skipped the Asian swing.

November 17th, 2012 at 1:45 pm

I’m just happy he’s playing Indian Wells. Another opportunity for me to watch him. Yay!

November 17th, 2012 at 2:04 pm

“thus the question is can Fed be #1 next year with the schedule that he has?”

I do not think the #1 rank is a priority for him now. This schedule makes it even more clear. It is simply very difficult physically at his age to chase the #1 rank when his main opponents are all so much younger. He is being practical and realistic. He would do well to remain inside the top four by the end of next season.

November 17th, 2012 at 2:28 pm

The simple reason why Basel is not on Federer’s schedule is that playing three consecutive weeks puts at risk the 2,500 points of Paris Masters and WTF all for a 500 event. Ideally, Federer would stop wasting his body and time on Davis Cup next year to free up his body for events such as Beijing. Since Federer has to play at least one 500 event after US Open, I’m guessing he is in secret negotiations with Beijing and/or Tokyo — or perhaps details with Basel are still being worked out. After US Open, Federer should rest and put in a training block before playing Beijing 500 and Shanghai Masters 1000. Rest and train during the two weeks between Shanghai and Paris, then finish with Paris and WTF.

The more complicated reason that Federer is not playing Basel is because negotiations between the Basel organizer Roger Brennwald and Roger’s team have broken down, as I posted before. The latest story, in German, is in this link (‘brenn wald’ literally means ‘burning forest’ in German). Basically, given the new ATP calendar in Fall, it makes no more sense for Federer to keep playing Basel at the expense of Paris. Furthermore Federer has been playing Basel 500 at the low appearance fee of 500,000 per year beween 2009 to 2012 (e.g., his rival Nadal got three times more for playing 2010 Bangkok, a 250 event). Brennwald has been lowballing Federer (despite the positive financial impact he has had on the event). At Basel, a few weeks ago, Brennwald even leaked certain details of the negotiations to the media and tried to use public pressure to portray Federer as a blood-sucking vampire at his hometown event to force Federer to play at a lower rate. Instead of retaliating in the press, Federer kept quiet, tried to negotiate directly with Brennwald at the WTF and, given an agreement was not reached, Roger simply pulled out of Basel. Brennwald is an arrogant man, so he will probably not pay what Federer wants but instead offer the same big bucks to try to attract Nadal, Djokovic and/or Murray — all of whom might withdraw at the last minute like Murray did in the past two years or put in a half-hearted effort for a few rounds. Basel is a relatively rich area in Switzerland, given it is a center of the pharmaceutical, chemical and banking industries in Switzerland, one of the richest European countries (per capita GDP).
http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/sport/tennis/Der-Clash-der-Alphatiere/story/31630694

Perhaps Federer chose to sacrifice the 2,000 points of Miami and Monte Carlo to take a seven week break from tennis and put in a proper training block before he returns for the Madrid to Wimbledon stretch. From Roger’s perspective, had his hip not been injured in Madrid, he might have performed better at Rome and French Open.

Or maybe Federer chose not to play Miami possibly because it is an IMG event — it’s possible that IMG and Federer have had a falling out since Federer left their fold. Or perhaps Federer is still negotiating the terms of his apperance at Miami — why not, since his partici[ation sells tickets and sponsors. Or perhaps Federer is using his clout to pressure IMG to stop scuttling the Indian Wells offer to increase prize money for earlier round losers.

I think Federer still loses 1,000 points from not playing Miami Masters. As well, he loses 500 points from not playing a 500 event after US Open as well as another 500 points from playing only two (Rotterdam, Dubai) out of four required 500 events. If Federer played the non mandatory Monte Carlo Masters, it would count as a 500 event but yield 1,000 points (which is what Djokovic did this year).

Even with the schedule he has, it is still possible for Roger to regain No.1 again provided he executes at the events he plays.

However, to maximize ranking points, Roger’s ideal 18 events should be: four Grand Slams, World Tour Finals, nine Masters 1000 (including Miami and Monte Carlo), and four ATP 500 tournaments. Djokovic finished No.1 partly because he did not play waste his efforts on Davis Cup, but instead played nine Masters 1000 events and Beijing 500.

November 17th, 2012 at 2:48 pm

‘ He would do well to remain inside the top four by the end of next season.’

^THIS!

Fed’s got nothing to prove now and FACT is he is 31- no need to over exert himself at this point chasing the no.1 when IF he were to get it, it would add little to his career.

BEST to schedule smartly and look to peak for slams- that is what he is doing!

November 17th, 2012 at 3:19 pm

Besides Wimby, Roger will win 2 grand Slams next year The A.O the US open. Just wait and see.

November 17th, 2012 at 3:39 pm

Robin Soderling Update: He seems to have gone beyond mononucleosis to some form of chronic fatigue syndrome — the causes which are beyond current medical science.
http://www.blick.ch/sport/tennis/ist-tennis-star-soederling-am-ende-id2105237.html

November 17th, 2012 at 4:15 pm

^this is bad news for tennis fans. Soderling was an excellent player that brought a lot to the game. A shame if this is true.

I was looking forward to see him back. I wish him the best of luck, but he has already had a successful career.

November 17th, 2012 at 5:48 pm

Dave, thanks for sharing. That really is a shame. Soderling was fun to watch and could shake things up for the big 4.

November 17th, 2012 at 6:26 pm

This is a geneuis schedule for Federer! He will have a 4 week training block from the middle of December this year through the 10th of January which is why he dropped the exho in Abu Dhabi, and also the Qatar Open in Doha. That was very smart! My guess is he will train three weeks in Dubai and arrive to Melbourne 1 week before the Australian Open to train on Rod Laver arena. So he will play in Australia, Rotterdam, Dubai, and Indian Wells which are 4 great tournaments for him. After Indian Wells he will take 7 weeks off the rest and also have another 3 or 4 week training block for the clay. He will than go play Madrid, Rome(maybe), and the French Open. Less than a week later the most important season(grass)for Roger takes place. He will be trying to win Wimbledon for an 8th time which would be a record and would make him the greatest male grass court player of all time. Huge time of the year for Roger! He than will take another 5-6 weeks off and once again will get a 2-3 week training block in for the summer hard court season. After the US Open he will rest and train again for the final push of the year. He will play Shanghai, Paris, and hopefully the World Tour Finals. This is a very smart schedule for Roger and provided he stays healthy should propel him to another great year!

November 17th, 2012 at 7:50 pm

Trying to be like jamie :p

All the planets will be cheering for roger and they will line up for him and stay that way till 2014! Here’s my predictions for federer next year :p :p :

1. Wins AO
2. Wins Rome masters
3. Wins FO
4. Wins Halle
5. Wins Wimbledon
6. Wins Canadian masters
7. Wins Cincinnati masters
8. Wins USO
9. Wins Shanghai masters
10. Wins Paris masters
11. Wins WTF

wow what a year it’s gonna be :D!

November 18th, 2012 at 1:07 am

^^^^ Hallucinations. Hallucinations!!! #PunchDrunk

November 18th, 2012 at 2:57 am

Please get well soon Soda pop. I miss your dimples.
BTW love Roger’s schedule. Definitely wise to skip Basel. Hopefully skip DC too. Best of luck Roger.

November 18th, 2012 at 4:18 am

Yeah, hope Soderling gets better soon. But it’s going to be a near-miracle to return to the top 10 after being away physically, mentally and emotionally for so long.

November 18th, 2012 at 4:27 am

Video clip: “Have you thought if Federer was Brazilian” (Já pensou se o Federer fosse Brasileiro”?). Federer’s new schedule gives the brazilian poser a chance to play futbol and volleybol.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hUBYkFubCIk

November 18th, 2012 at 4:30 am

@giles,

I wasn’t hallucinating. I was only kidding. I think u didn’t get the joke

November 18th, 2012 at 5:17 am

^^^ Sorry, misread your moniker, read it as TJ (the clown on this forum)!

November 18th, 2012 at 5:30 am

@Perhaps Federer chose to sacrifice the 2,000 points of Miami and Monte Carlo to take a seven week break from tennis and put in a proper training block before he returns for the Madrid to Wimbledon stretch. From Roger’s perspective, had his hip not been injured in Madrid, he might have performed better at Rome and French Open
Dave”
One small footnote to this paragraph: according to Blick, Roger contracted his injury before Madrid, and not during the Madrid tournament. The words “vor dem turnier in der spanischen Hauptstadt” mean in english “BEFORE the tournament in the Spanish capital”.
http://www.blick.ch/sport/tennis/djoker-gnadenlos-id1916789.html
Training sessions have their own risks.

November 18th, 2012 at 5:30 am

@giles,

it’s ok. Now I’m just thinking that maybe I should change the “Tz” username

I think federer should play monte carlo. It could be his last chance to win there

November 18th, 2012 at 5:46 am

@Tz. Nah, Monte Carlo belongs to Rafa!! Lol. #FedKnowsThat

November 18th, 2012 at 5:54 am

14 tournaments … rubbish
top 5 are playing around 20
he could easily drop from the top 5 with a few bad results which i don’t think he is happy to do.
djoker played 18 this year but only because he won or finals almost every time.

so 14 is either unbelievably cocky or crap.
on second thought, i guess you can’t put it past federer…

November 18th, 2012 at 6:46 am

Roger is the GOAT scheduler. Always has been, always will be.

Skipping Doha is a great idea as he’s said himself he’s lacking it.

Slowami is purple clay, way too physical so may as well let Djoker and Murray kill themselves on it.

November 18th, 2012 at 8:04 am

“14 tournaments … rubbish
top 5 are playing around 20”

Fed has always been in a league of his own in scheduling, hince his longetivity in the game and his health compared to the field. Its obvious at 31(32 next year)he is trying to stay and play in the gane for the long haul and to give his body the best chance to compete. The guy has played over 1000 ATP matches.

November 18th, 2012 at 8:34 am

Great video Dave. Federer as a footballer! Very funny too!

Federer’s schedule is perFect.

November 18th, 2012 at 4:41 pm

Glad you liked it, madmax!

****

wilfried: “One small footnote to this paragraph: according to views, Roger contracted his injury before Madrid, and not during the Madrid tournament. The words “before the tournament in the Spanish capital” mean in english “BEFORE the tournament in the Spanish capital… training sessions have their own risks.”

From what I remember, Blick is the only major Swiss news media that later reported (in that one article on June 9) Federer’s hip injury happened before Madrid. However on May 12, Christian Bürge/Buerge (who wrote that article), made a tweet which indicated his ignorance that Federer was even injured at the end of Madrid (“Federer said he’s unsure if he’ll play Rome. I’m a bit surprised. Roland Garros without prep on red clay?”) even though I believe other news media already reported Federer was injured in Madrid. I believe those are the only references to Federer’s hip injury by Christian Burge or Blick.

I don’t remember other Swiss journalists writing about Federer injuring his hip during training sessions before Madrid. Most Swiss journalists referred to Federer’s hip injury during the Madrid and Rome tournamnets.

– Simon Graf reported Federer’s hip injury from Madrid and Rome possibly affected him at the French Open (June 24 article was in Tages Anzeiger, Basel’s Basler Zeitung as well as several other Swiss newspapers).
http://bazonline.ch/sport/tennis/Federer-der-Aussenseiter-/story/24702626

– Federer’s biographer and Swiss tennis writer Rene Stauffer ‏twittered on June 9 that Federer “Confirmed he had trouble with the hip in Madrid and Rome”.

I remember reading one or two reports in May suggesting that Federer had injured himself during Madrid, but I can’t find those reports now.

In any case, it’s no big deal whether he injured his hip during Madrid OR before Madrid (Federer still managed to win Madrid against the toughest five opponents in terms of average ranking faced by any Masters 1000 champion this year). My point here is that had Federer not been injured he might have had a better clay season this year after taking a 6 plus week break… thus next year a healthy Federer after 7-week break with training should be in a better position to perform even better than this year.

[Btw, I noticed that, on June 12, you quoted my June 8 post from this site in response to a questionable article by Ruan’s Federer blog: ‘I tend to agree a bit with the view of someone using the name Dave on another blog: “ Federer of course gave full credit to Djokovic and made no excuses on body or conditions etc.. Federer typically downplays his injuries, so we have to read between the lines of what he says and find out more from the Swiss press. Federer was ambivalent, even contradictory, in his presser, at times acknowledging he had an injury in Madrid that was expected to affect him for three or four weeks (that’s a pretty serious injury), he wasn’t in the best shape physically, it was a difficult clay court season… but magically on the day of the Djokovic semifinal he had his best day physically compared to the previous month. Federer is a glass-half-full kind of guy.”… Perhaps Dave’s words sound a bit harsh, but after all there might be some truth in what he’s saying, because Roger’s comment in Paris doesn’t seem to correspond completely with what he said according to this Blic-article.’ ]

November 19th, 2012 at 3:06 am

roy: “14 tournaments … rubbish. top 5 are playing around 20… djoker played 18 this year… so 14 is either unbelievably cocky or crap. on second thought, i guess you can’t put it past federer…”

Federer actually listed 15 events for next year. The 15th event missed was Federer’s humble, non-presumptious “plus hopefully the ATP World Tour Finals in London”. Federer played 15 events in 2005 and 2009 — both years No.1.

In 2012, both Federer and Djokovic ACTUALLY PLAYED 17 tournaments each. Go count their tournaments played on the playing activity or rankings breakdown pages (instead of relying on the ‘tournaments played’ on the rankings page — which includes 0 pointer ‘mandatory events’).

In 2012, Federer could have played 15 events with a loss of only 45 points: (a) roger could have removed Doha since the 90 points was non-countable and (b) Roger could have removed the 45 points he got from mandatory Miami. So, using common sense, should have spent those two weeks at Doha and Miami training hard instead of wasting two weeks for a measly 45 points.
http://www.atpworldtour.com/Tennis/Players/Top-Players/Roger-Federer.aspx?t=rb

The maximum ranking points events would be: World Tour Finals, four Grand Slams, nine Masters 1000 (non-mandatory Monte Carlo’s 1,000 points is counted under the 500 event), and five ATP 500 tournaments. Whenever a player deviates from this formula, he sacrifices events where he could maximize his ranking points. However, just because he plays these events does not mean he will actually perform and maximize his points.

*****

Perfect Tennis: “Roger is the GOAT scheduler. Always has been, always will be.”

In recent years, that’s sometimes been a false myth. For example, Djokovic is NO.1 this year because this year Novak’s scheduling was smarter and more efficient than Federer’s. Novak played 17 of the right events: WTF, four grand slams, all nine Masters events, three 500 events (including Olympics) — this was close to the maximum potential for points (just lacking two more 500 events). And Djokovic skipped Davis Cup to focus on the ATP Tour.

On the other hand, Federer’s 17 events included critical omissions and inefficiencies: three skipped Masters 1000 events (Monte Carlo, Canada, Paris) worth 3,000 points; two ATP 250 events (Doha was uncountable) instead of two more ATP 500 events; playing Basel at the expense of Paris (Beijing would have been smarter).

As well, Federer chose to play two ties of Davis Cup that adds the burden of two extra weeks of tennis with no countable ranking points.

Federer would have probably finished No. 1 had he been smarter in scheduling the second half of his season:

– After Wimbledon, Federer had taken the lead in the year-to-date rankings with 7,085 points from 11 tournaments (Federer had also briefly taken the lead after Indian Wells in March) — this was his best performance since an equivalent 7,460 points in 2009 and 7,490 points in 2007 (Federer’s six titles by Cincinnati was his best since 2006). Djokovic was in second place with 6,840 year-to-date points from 9 tournaments, just 45 points ahead of Nadal.

– However, after Wimbledon, Djokovic won 6,080 points from 8 tournaments (Olympics, Canada, Cincinnati, US Open, Beijing, Shanghai, Paris, World Tour Finals). On the other hand, Federer put less effort into the second half of his season to win 3,180 points from 6 tournaments (Olympics, Cincinnati, US Open, Shanghai, Basel, World Tour Finals). This was a head-scratcher, given Federer had traditionally performed well in the second half in those years he wanted to.

Federer’s biggest mistake was his questionable scheduling after the US Open. Even though Djokovic was 1,005 year-to-date points ahead of Federer, Roger still had an oppotrunity to overtake Djokovic with a solid Fall such as did in the past two years. To do this, Federer needed to skip Davis Cup after the US Open, rest and train for the Fall; then play Beijing, Shanghai, Basel, Paris and WTF. Instead, Roger wasted his time on Davis Cup against Netherlands, showed up in Shanghai looking rusty, performed subpar in Basel, skipped Paris and performed slightly subpar at WTF. With these omissions and performance level after the US Open, Federer effectively surrendered the No. 1 ranking to Djokovic.

In 1998, Pete Sampras — then coached by Paul Annacone — skipped the USA-Italy Davis Cup semifinal which freed him to play seven tournaments in eight consecutive weeks in order to achieve his sixth year-end No. 1! Had Federer done so, he probably would have been the year-end No. 1, not Djokovic.

November 19th, 2012 at 4:46 am

@ Dave
Thanks for your response.
I like reading your comments, Dave, because they’re often very insightful and informative, and I agree most of the time with your points of view, for instance with your (not very popular) view on Roger Federer’s Davis Cup participation for Switzerland and it’s repercussions on his career.
As far as Roger’s schedule for 2013 is concerned, I share your opinion that a healthy Federer should benefit from a 7-week break and could have a better clay season than this year. As a matter of fact I hope he’ll win the Roland Garros title a second time, and this with a healthy Nadal still competing for the title. But this wish may perhaps be an idle fantasy.

November 19th, 2012 at 7:02 am

Thanks Wilfried. And I share your hopes (not an idle fantasy, haha). At this age, Federer has to be wise on where he will allocate his diminishing resources to maximize his results — Davis Cup has not been a wise investment in my opinion.

November 19th, 2012 at 1:53 pm

I Purrchaed my tickets way in advance for the Sony Open so I could see Federer, noe I feal disaponited at him for not includining in his schedule.. It will be a big lose for the Sony Open and in particular for a group of 57 people that are coming from Venezuela to see him in Miami.. I’m pissed.

December 2nd, 2012 at 9:58 am