Roger Federer Feels Absurd On The Courts Of Dubai

The Swiss legend, Roger Federer is geared up for the battle of the veterans against the Spaniard, Fernando Verdasco in the pre-quarterfinals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. Although, Federer holds a hundred per cent winning percentage record against Verdasco, however certainly, the aggressive Spaniard is a ferocious foe. It’s the first tournament for Roger Federer since his loss in Melbourne and Verdasco has recently played on the courts of Sofia, Rotterdam, and Marseille. Neither of the ATP men had comfortable first-round victories and it is difficult to speculate the victor of tomorrow’s match in the global city of the Middle East.

The Basel native, Roger Federer also owns a residence in Dubai and spends most of his training time on the coast of the Persian Gulf. Even though, it is hot and humid all part of the year in Dubai and Federer prefers to spend his autumn and winter months in the city of Dubai, since it “works well for practice and leisure.”

As Federer is presently chasing his 100th ATP crown in Dubai, but unfortunately, he feels the ambience of the court is different from the usual or what it used to be in the past. He has won seven titles earlier on this arena, but this year, it is an unfamiliar perception for Federer. “Obviously, we’ve had a double change here now we have different balls, different speed”, Roger Federer mentioned. “There are two aspects to it. Yeah, apparently they resurfaced the courts two weeks ago. Who knows. This is through third parties, so I’m not maybe telling massive rumours here, but that’s what I’ve been told.”

Earlier the courts of the Arab tournament were faster and the blowing wind was creating difficulties in controlling the ball. “I just think it’s more gritty now, a bit more Indian Wells like, which I think is a good thing. It used to be really a fast court tennis tournament here. Even in practice here, all the weeks I’ve spent here, it’s been very difficult to control the ball. Maybe you also saw that tonight. I think it’s much more because of the wind that it was hard to control tonight, not because of the speed. I think it’s a different feeling overall this week. You can’t just serve your way out of trouble all the time. You have to do it with hitting the lines off baseline shots. It’s just going to take a different type of approach in how you’re going to try to win your points. That’s it. I got to make that mental adjustment very quickly,” Federer continued.