About two weeks after his loss in the Wimbledon semi-final to Milos Raonic in July this year, Roger Federer officially confirmed his participation at the 2017 Hopman Cup in January as a tune-up to the Australian Open. To say that Federer’s decision came as a surprise would be an understatement. Not only had he not played in the tournament for more than a decade – 2002, to be precise – but for the last three years, Brisbane had been his preferential choice to begin the Australian summer.
Nearly a week following this announcement, came a shocker from Federer wherein he disclosed that he would not be playing anymore in the season to focus on improving his fitness, post his surgery-related rehab. Tough as it was to accept his choice, it could not be disagreed that it was rational made with the intention of effectually extending his career, instead of just making up a continuity of statistical highs.
Deciphering Federer’s scheduling alterations
Piecing together these two proclamations, over the course of these six months, it slowly become clearer why the Swiss opted to participate in the Hopman Cup over Brisbane.
As the defending finalist in Brisbane, Federer had 150 points at stake. And, at one point, these would have been considered as a drop in his otherwise brimming rankings pot. However, the six-month absence from the Tour meant that defending these points – or doing one better – would have boosted his rankings. It would have gone onto be an ever-so-slight nudge, but one that could have prevented from encountering a tricky draw at Melbourne Park, later.
The International Tennis Federation-held Hopman Cup, in contrast, offers nought by way of points despite having amassed a huge fan and media following in the Australian – and overseas – tennis circles. Nonetheless, it was the most viable choice for a player looking to get good match practice, after a lengthy break, without having to worry about rankings and ranking points. Correspondingly, Federer could also assess and adjust his game before the season started in earnest and he began working his way forward through the player ranks.
The IPTL interference
The IPTL’s declaration that Federer would be leading the Indian Aces’ campaign in India was however jarring. This startling development that hastened his comeback meant a great deal to his fans, who were not used to seeing him sit out of competitions at all. Yet, on a broader scale, the earlier cohesiveness of his scheduling fell apart as did come to be worrisome the deviance from his customary astuteness in meticulously planning his calendar. And, particularly given what’d transpired this year, the news then made out Federer to be a contrarian, when he’s seldom so.
The follow-up information about his and Serena Williams’ withdrawal from the League did do a lot to restore this imbalance. Mahesh Bhupathi made a reference to demonetisation as the reason for the two not playing this year, in his official statement. His words led to frustrated rants from Federer fans, who had made travel plans to watch him play competitively, after all these months.
To perspectives borne out of such grievances, the wait to have him restart his career seems even more prolonged though in ideal terms, nothing has changed. His career remains paused until when he would have said he was going to rejoin the sport.
For, irrespective of all of IPTL’s strikethrough statements about Federer committing himself to the tournament, there was no personal mention of it from him. Nowhere in the time-period that he was away from active action that Federer had hinted about playing the IPTL. In fact, the 17-time Grand Slam champion had refused to discuss his 2017 season after January while launching the Laver Cup in New York, in August, right before the commencement of the US Open.
And since he will be resuming when he wants to and as intended all along, it will be for the best. His six-month long break wouldn’t go in vain. As would the Hopman Cup have a mentally and physically refreshed player, playing for himself as much as to entertain his idolaters revelling in his well-executed rejoinder to start the new year afresh, without dimming any of their expectations from him.