What Roger Federer wished many more players would do on grass courts which still hasn’t changed

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Roger Federer is, arguably, the greatest grass-court player of all time.

While his longtime rivals Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic mastered clay and hard court, respectively, Federer enjoyed his most Grand Slam success on the grass courts of Wimbledon.

The Swiss Maestro won a record eight titles at the All England Club over the course of his illustrious career.

Federer’s last triumph at Wimbledon came in 2017, when he defeated Marin Cilic in the final, having not dropped a set throughout the entire tournament.

The morning after he held the famous trophy aloft again that year, the legend had a few words next generation of players on the ATP Tour.

Roger Federer’s advice to young players back in 2017

The young stars of the game were finding it hard to match the level of the ‘big four’ at the time, with Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Andy Murray occupying the top four spots in the rankings.

Players such as Alexander Zverev, Dominic Thiem, and Nick Kyrgios simply could not find a way past them on the biggest stages.

Federer suggested that, at Wimbledon, their struggles may have had a lot to do with their refusal to approach the net.

As per the Guardian in 2017, he said: “I know you can easily get sucked into that [attritional] mode when you don’t want to attack, but if you can’t volley, you are not going to go to the net.

“Almost every player I played here wouldn’t serve and volley. It’s frightening to me, to see that at this level.

“I look at the stats and, whatever round it is, I see that the guy I’m going to face is playing two per cent of serve and volley throughout the championship.

“I’m going, OK, I know he’s not going to serve and volley – which is great for me. And the grass was playing fast this week.

“I wish that we would see more coaches, more players taking chances up at the net, because good things do happen there.”

While serve and volley is not completely dead in today’s game, it is certainly less prevalent than it used to be.

The biggest stars in the game tend to have long baseline exchanges, even on the faster courts on tour, such as Queen’s and Wimbledon.

The matter is likely not helped by the fact that many events are slowing the pace index of their courts down, which hinders big servers, and ultimately lessens the appeal to serve and volley.

Federer discussed the surface speed issue in an interview at the Laver Cup and suggested tennis would be more exciting if players like Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner had to figure things out on lightning-fast courts.

Such changes do not appear to be in the plans of the ATP Tour, though, which does not bode well for Federer’s hopes for a return of the serve and volley method.

Roger Federer said the next generation were not strong enough

While some tweaks to their games may have helped, there was not much players such as Zverev and Kyrgios could have done during the ‘big four era’.

Federer himself admitted that they simply were not strong enough to compete with Nadal, Djokovic, Murray and himself.

He said: “Since my generation and Rafa’s generation, yes, the next one hasn’t been strong enough to push all of us out.

“A young guy, if he wants to make a breakthrough, he can beat me or any top player, but if he doesn’t make a run to the final or win the tournament, he’s not making any move in the rankings.

“It’s not so easy to win five straight matches [in Masters and lower tournaments]. The consistency that’s required by the young generation is quite complex.

“Because of our different playing styles at the top, put Stan [Wawrinka] in there, put Cilic in there and then the big four – it’s hard for young guys to make a run through that.”

Between them, the ‘big four’ won a total of 69 Grand Slam titles, with each player reaching world number one status.