Imagine Tiger Woods using a driver with a hickory shaft or LeBron James wearing a pair of Chuck Taylors on the court. What if you had to buy Jay-Z’s recent album on cassette and watch NFL games on a 15-inch black-and-white? Can you thrive in the present while living in the past?
That’s the question Roger Federer has been asked for years, as he played with a classic 90 square-inch racket head while his tennis peers were using modern, over-sized models that helped generate more power. Federer refused to join the party, staying with the small racket that helped him win 17 Grand Slams and set a record for most weeks at No. 1 in the ATP rankings. But after struggling in 2013 and falling to No. 5 in the rankings for the first time in nearly 10 years, that’s about to change.
On Tuesday, Federer confirmed weeks of suspicion and said he would switch to a 98 square-inch racket head, an increase of eight inches. It’s a massive change for the greatest tennis player of his generation and one that puts him in line with most of the ATP Tour. (Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal use 100-inch heads. Andy Murray uses a 98-inch.) The idea is that the bigger the racket, the bigger the power.
Federer had been practicing with a blacked out racket before this week’s tournament in Hamburg.
Federer resisted change for years, much like the man whose Grand Slam record he surpassed, Pete Sampras. The American tennis star never went away from his tiny, 85-inch Wilson Pro Staff 6.0. When his career was done, Sampras said he regretted his lack of upgrade.
Will Federer end up regretting his decision to go bigger? Equipment changes often stymie top golfers, like Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. Plus, if it was such an easy fix, Federer would have made the switch long ago. He’s been playing for 11 years with a 90-inch frame and now, at 31 and in the twilight of his career, he’s making a major move.
More power, more stability and more precision could follow. It’s also easy to see how this could all go wrong. Maybe the sweet spot gets smaller. Perhaps he won’t be to whip his one-handed backhand as quickly with a larger head. If he experiences growing pains with the 98-inch head, how will that affect his mental game?
He’s acknowledged the psychological problem. “It’s also hard to change with all the success I’ve had with the racket,” Federer told the New York Times in 2011, when he had won 16 Grand Slams with the 90-inch Wilson.
It’s worth the risk, however. Federer has ceded power to the Djokovics and Nadals of the world for too long. When he was in his prime, he could compensate. Now that his skills are on the decline, he can’t afford to give up that advantage.
Roger Federer is finally catching up with the times.
No comments:
Post a Comment