Roger Federer is counting on the green, green grass of Wimbledon to help him bury the memory of the worst defeat of his career and a miserable first half of the year.
The world number one limped out of Roland Garros on Sunday after a humbling 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 defeat at the hands of clay-court nemesis Rafael Nadal in the French Open final, and all the signs are that the gap between the two is widening on the dusty surface.
He is scheduled to play his traditional Wimbledon warm-up in the German town of Halle next week and then head to south-west London where he has won for the last five years.
Federer insisted that he could find positives to take out of his fortnight in Paris and that psychologically he would not be damaged by such a heavy defeat.
”I mean, after a loss like this you don’t want to play Rafa again tomorrow, that’s for sure, you know,” he said.
”But I’ve beaten Rafa six-love in a set and I’ve beaten him in finals before. I’ve beaten him also quite comfortably on previous occasions.
”I haven’t lost on grass for, what is it, five years now, six years? I still definitely feel very strong about my chances and being the big favourite, going into grass.”
Sunday’s defeat was the eighth of the season for Federer and he has won just the one title — at Estoril — when opponent Nikolay Davydenko pulled out injured before the final.
His early season preparations were hit by a bout of glandular fever over the winter and that partly explained his straight sets loss to Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open semifinals in January.
But Federer has said on several occasions since then that he is back to full fitness and just needs now to get back to winning ways.
That was never on the cards against Nadal in Paris, who romped through the fortnight without losing a set.
Federer says he still has hopes of one day winning the one Grand Slam title that is missing from his collection, but with Nadal five years his junior and likely to improve still further, the reality is that the Swiss maestro will need to claim his ”best ever” status elsewhere.
To that effect, he said that despite the drubbing at Roland Garros he would continue his coaching links with Jose Higueras, who he teamed up with at the start of this year’s clay-court season.
”He’s going to come to Halle with me and he’s also going to be in Wimbledon,” Federer said.
”It’s something we are going to speak about over the next few weeks, so we will see how it goes.” — Sapa-AFP