Roger Federer still undecided for Paris

Roger Federer confirmed after winning the Miami Open earlier this month that he would skip the entire European clay-court season. The plan was just to play the French Open.

The 35-year-old probably wouldn’t give himself much of a chance to win it. Federer has won in Paris just once, back in 2009. With no preparation at all, those chances would be even more remote. So the prevailing thought around the tennis universe was that he might well skip Paris, too.

Saturday at his home in Lenzerheide, Switzerland he told a few selected journalists that playing the French Open was still the plan. But he won’t make a final decision until after he completes a training block in Dubai, around May 10.

“When we finish with the work in Dubai, I’ll sit down with the team and see if I’ll play the clay or not. I’ll see how I feel, if something happens in the middle of it, whether physically or mentally,” he said. “The way I see things right now, I will play the French Open. But between now and May 10, a lot can happen.”

Federer added that if he didn’t play, his break between Miami and the grass-court season would be not seven weeks, but 10 weeks. So that’s a consideration; that’s a long chunk of time away from the game, especially for a man on a roll, at his age.

But he reiterated what he said in Miami: just showing up was no longer going to be an option for him. When he plays, he’ll be really well-prepared and very eager.

It will not have escaped his notice that unlike the other top players, he has few points to defend during the clay-court season – 270 in all (five per cent of his total). So while there’s much to gain, there is also very little to lose.