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How Fed Takes Advantage of the ATP Tour

One of the awesome things about being a tennis fan is that you don’t have to suffer through a long off-season without any Nadal, Sharapova, or Roddick stimulation. Unlike almost every other sport, the ATP and WTA only takes a short break between the year-end championships in December and the Aussie Open in January. While the long, grueling season leaves some players unhappy, the near-constant play keeps tennis junkies happy..

So let’s break down how the ATP tour is structured (frankly, I care much more about men’s tennis – sorry ladies!). The high points are clearly the four majors – the Aussie, French, Wimbledon, and US in January, May, June, and August respectively. In between these majors are mini-”seasons” for different types of hard courts. In general, hard-court events will lead up to the Aussie and US Opens, clay court events to the French, and grass events to Wimbledon.

Obviously, the 4 majors are the biggest events in terms of publicity, money, points, and excitement. Each slam gives 2000 points to its winner, double that of the 9 Masters events (1000 points for winner). If we throw in the (1) year-end ATP World Tour Finals, we have the “big 14″ tournaments that make up the main component of rankings points among the movers and shakers of the tennis world.

What’s the best way, as a player, to take advantage of this system? If we look at the case of Roger Federer and many of the other top-ranked players, it’s clear that consistency at slams is HUGE in staying atop the rankings. If you look at the current ATP Top 10, you’ll notice that Fed is more than 3,000 points ahead of Djokovic for the #1 spot. How does he do it?

As we mentioned, consistency is no joke for the Fed-meister. If you watch news stories carefully, you’ll see that the 28-year old maestro almost always errs on the side of caution in less-important tourneys so that he’s ready to go for the big ones. For instance, just a couple weeks ago he pulled out of Dubai due to a lung infection. He only pulls out if he’s forced to, you say? Not so. In the last few months, he has also withdrawn from: Kooyong, Tokyo, and Shanghai (not to mention tournaments like Paris and Halle in the past year).. He cites various reasons for withdrawing, but mostly it’s the same thing: he spends his down-time resting his back or legs and takes time to return to all-around top form.

Do I need to emphasize how effective this strategy has been? Aside from his perch atop the men’s tennis world (he’s closing in on pete’s all-time record of total weeks at No. 1 and should hit the mark this summer if he stays on form), he has won 4 of the last 6 slams, been in the finals of 18 of the last 19 slams, has won a record 16 slams total, and has made a RIDICULOUS 23 STRAIGHT SLAM SEMIFINALS!!!

Wise sports writers don’t normally say things like this (for good reason), but I honestly feel that Fed’s Straight Slam Semifinals record is one that will never be broken. Just imagine the excellence, good health, perseverance, and – yes – luck involved in not missing a slam semifinal for almost 6 straight years! That’s 115 matches (23 x 5 to get to semis) that he couldn’t lose either (a) b/c of a bad day (b) b/c of injury (c) b/c his opponent was playing phenomenally or (d) b/c S*&$ happens!

Doing well in slams is the real-deal of the tennis world – one slam is worth 4x the points of a hum-drum ATP 500-level tourney.. The big stage of the majors separates the men from the boys, and I think the adage “The proof is in the pudding” applies to Federer’s response to that stage.

This post is long enough as is, so I’ll sign off. Next time you see the Swiss master play, however, think about the effort he puts out not only on the court, but also in smart tournament selection.. Cheers!