Roger Federer culminated a near perfect start to the tennis season with the Australian Open Singles Title to earn his 20th Grand Slam Singles Championship. Below are 5 lessons that I believe junior players can learn from his actions and journey to the pinnacle of the sport.
5 Lessons For Developing Players
- Great Preparation Leads To Great Results: Roger was amongst the first group of tour players to arrive in Australia more than 2 weeks prior to the event. The early arrival gave him time to overcome the jet-lag, get acclimatized to the Aussie summer, and to develop feel for the court conditions. I believe Roger deeply understands the importance of great preparation, and this approach can be translated to any level of the game.
- Develop Your Serve Into A Weapon: Roger has always had a strong serve, but over the past year, his service motion, rhythm and ability to hit specific targets has improved to a new level. His 24 aces vs Cilic’s 16 (as per match stats on the Australian Open’s website) showcases his superior serving relative to Cilic, who himself is one of the strongest servers in the game. In fact, early in the 3rd set when Cilic had the upper hand in the baseline rallies, it was Roger’s serve that completely neutralized Cilic’s advantage and helped him to withstand the tide. For developing players, the lesson here is to spend quality time working on your serves, particularly the accuracy, speed, and variation of both your 1st and 2nd serves.
- Strengthen Your Weaknesses: Over the years, one relative weakness in Roger’s game has been his backhand drive. However, he has bridged this gap as evidenced by the strong backhand cross-court rallies and inside-out backhand returns from the deuce court that he executed flawlessly vs Cilic. The improved backhand has also resulted in a 4–0 record in 2017 against his menaces Rafa Nadal who was able to trouble him with heavy forehands to his backhand side. Therefore, a keen eye to identify weaker areas of one’s game and the willingness to put in the hard work to improve pays dividends.
- Develop An Attacking Game Style: Roger is one of the fastest players on tour to turn a neutral situation in a point into an attacking one. He does this by quickly picking out the depth of the incoming shot and being ready to spring forward and get inside the baseline for an attacking groundstroke. Here too, players can recognize that the ability to move forward and attack the opponent becomes a differentiator and can often be a determining factor in a match outcome.
- Surround Yourself With The Right People: Roger’s team has done an incredible job with not only helping him to extend his career, but also, in my opinion, to play his best tennis at the age of 36 years. Therefore, deciding whom to surround yourself with is one of the most important decisions that you can make during your career.
Learning And Improving Versus Relying On Talent
While people talk about the extraordinary talent that Roger has been blessed with, I tend to believe that his “talent” is often misunderstood. It is not some innate ability that he has that is out of the grasp of us mortals. Rather, his talent manifests in his desire to continuously learn and improve as described in the 5 points above.
All the best in your journey!
Harsh
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