Kjudineli napisao kolumnu o povlacenju Feda, ako nekog uopste zanima da cita
With regard to Wimbledon Federer had no choice
It is questionable that a player can preventively abandon a Grand Slam tournament. Nevertheless, Roger's withdrawal from Paris is absolutely understandable for me if he doesn't want to endanger his season highligh
Roger Federers - officially declared as a precautionary measure - withdrawal before the round of 16 of the French Open was not only talked about in the tennis world. While the comments in Switzerland, with a few exceptions, were positive and pro-Roger, more criticism was felt internationally.
But what actually happened? In tennis, there are withdrawals because of injuries every week somewhere. Less often before the start of the match, mostly during a game, as happened a few days ago with the other Swiss in the third round, Henri Laaksonen. In contrast to the vast majority of such "walk overs", as we call forfait defeats in tennis jargon, this time the "walk over" concerned a major tournament and came from a world star whose grand slam comeback the entire tennis world was eagerly waiting for. Beside that, it was carried out preventively and not due to an acute injury.
I cannot remember that a player ever abandoned a Grand Slam tournament out of prevention and it seems very questionable at first glance. In Paris, this happened twice within a week, if Naomi Osaka's waiver in order to avoid any winner / loser interviews for the benefit of her mental health is also to be called preventive. With Roger's decision, however, it is worth taking a closer look. Then it becomes clear that this makes perfect sense.
Due to comparable experiences with knee problems, which forced me to undergo a complicated knee operation in 2007 and 2008, combined with an 18-month break, I can empathize with Roger's situation. A comeback after such a long time is - despite the carefully planned and over a longer period of advanced training - always a tightrope walk and fraught with many question marks. While training units can be precisely controlled and, if necessary, adjusted, these possibilities do not apply to a comeback athlete in a competition.
This knowledge alone causes the athlete to be much more tense in a match situation and the body to react more strongly as a result. For me, it was normal for my knee to swell up a little in the evening after the long-awaited comeback in the first tournaments, as is usual with inflammations. When I fell asleep, I asked myself whether this irritation would subside overnight or whether I might have to take a few days off after all.
At the beginning, my fear and scepticism were great, but mostly everything was OK again the next morning. The more matches and tournaments I was able to play, the calmer I was able to go to bed in the evening despite a slightly swollen knee. This, in turn, allowed me to focus more and more on other things from week to week which it takes to win matches.
Roger's withdrawal in Paris, where he didn't give himself a chance to win this year, is therefore very understandable for me. In order to be in top form on time for his personal highlight of the season at Wimbledon, he needs two things beforehand: On the one hand, he has to regain complete confidence in his body during match situations. On the other hand, he needs match practice in order to be ready in London in the event of a more difficult draw than in Paris. However, the total focus on match practice only succeeds when 100 percent trust in the body is available again.
The starts in Doha on hard courts and in Geneva and Paris on clay were clearly there for Roger to regain confidence in his body and thus tick off the first item on his comeback list. Now that he seems to have this confidence again, it is up to him to turn to the second point with match practice. With regard to Wimbledon, this in turn ideally takes place on grass, in his case in Halle from next week. In order for this to happen successfully on the special playing surface, Roger needs a few days of recovery after Paris, followed by several training sessions on grass.
Since Halle takes place every year directly after Paris, this only works for those players who were not there in Paris until the very end. Roger has also canceled three times at short notice from Halle in the past because he made it to the final in Paris without this being a problem at Wimbledon. In a “normal” year, Roger would have played through in Paris, as in the past, and then renounced Halle because he would have accumulated enough match practice on different fast surfaces since January.
In this special year, Roger urgently needs as many matches as possible in Halle if he wants to shine on his preferred surface. This left him no choice but to make this unpopular forfait decision.
