By Miguel Seabra
Six years ago, a young prospect named Roger Federer took a small 5-inch step that ended up being a giant leap in his career. Now, after a dozen major titles and 234 weeks at No. 1, it may be time for another 5-inch step – one that would better equip him to face nemesis Rafael Nadal and make the most out of the second phase of his celebrated career.
No radical changes are needed, just a small but difficult one: stop using the smallest racquet frame on tour, even though it’s the one that has guided him to 12 Grand Slam titles. Federer's racquet is extremely demanding because the tiny sweet spot affords very little margin for error, and a more forgiving stick could allow him to swing a little more freely and be a confidence booster.
A GIANT 5-INCH LEAP
Back in the spring of 2002, Roger Federer felt his game was stagnating and he was shanking too many balls. He had been playing with the iconic but rather small 1984 Pro Staff model, one of the winningest frames in tennis history. With only subtle updates made over a decade and a half, the racquet with an 85 square-inch head had been used by champions such as Chris Evert, Stefan Edberg, Pete Sampras and Jim Courier.
The young Swiss had adopted the Pro Staff – used by his idols Edberg and Sampras – in the early 1990s, becoming junior world champion with it in 1998. But his game was different from his heroes’ – he was hitting his forehand with a lot more topspin than Sampras’s flat drives.
Watching Roger Federer play in his 1998 junior Wimbledon win and taking a closer look at him during a 1999 loss to Spain’s Joan Balcells in the first round of a Challenger in Espinho, Portugal, it was obvious the kid could play. His game flowed on the court and his classic style was already quite attractive, even if his tremendous racquet acceleration created the occasional mishit.
Federer’s transition to the pro tour was fairly rapid, and by the end of 2001 he was closing in on the top 10. But despite a landmark victory over Pete Sampras at Wimbledon, he had yet to make it past the quarterfinal of a Grand Slam. The following spring, he made a bold decision right in the middle of the clay court season – switching to a 90 square-inch version of the Pro Staff. The larger sweet spot allowed him to hit fewer balls off the frame and reduce his unforced errors.
The results were almost immediate. In his second tournament with the new racquet, he won Hamburg for his first Masters Series title, producing a scintillating performance in the final against then-No. 4 Marat Safin and declaring it “the best game of my life.”
The following year he became Wimbledon champion and soon afterwards started an unparalleled run at the top of the rankings, seducing everyone with his smooth technique and exquisite timing.
There was still the occasional shanked shot, of course, particularly when he was trying to impart 4,400 rpm on his topspin forehand. After all, even with the 90 square-inch head, he was still playing with the smallest stick on the tour. Other Wilson players currently on the tour choose midsize versions between 93 and 98 square inches, and the average size of the racquets on tour is leaning towards 100 square inches.
Federer’s racquet, now called the Wilson KFactor KSix-One Tour 90, has barely changed since.
At the Australian Open, I asked him about whether he would consider making a switch. The question elicited a negative response, even though he spoke positively about his earlier change.
“No, I've always been very happy,” said Federer. “I never really tried a bigger head-size racquet. I don't think it would maybe help me much.
“I switched from 85 to 90 back in 2002 just before I won Hamburg. That was for me a big move because I was really shanking a lot of balls. Then I changed to a 90. I asked Wilson to make something special for me. Yeah, I mean, it's a great racquet for me.
“Funny, I wanted to play with the racquet of Sampras, now Sampras is playing with the racquet of me,” Federer smiled. “Kind of weird... he changed to mine now.”
Champions are stubborn and stand by their choices – maybe that’s one of the reasons they’re champions. But champions are also able to adapt to new circumstances and face the challenges of new opponents in a new era.
A slightly bigger frame with the same specs (balance, stiffness, swing weight, stringbed pattern) would keep the stability and control Federer craves, but be more forgiving and give him a bigger sweetspot. Isn’t it at least worth a try?
“ALMOST LIKE CHEATING”
Just ask Federer’s exhibition partner and friend Pete Sampras, who's admitted he regrets not experimenting with a bigger frame while he was still on tour.
Sampras played his whole glorious career with one racquet – the Wilson Pro Staff 85, strung with gut. He won his last Grand Slam at the US Open in 2002, but for some years he’d been already struggling against a new generation of players who were born clutching an oversized racquet in their hands. Apart from his famed fitness, one of the reasons Andre Agassi lasted so long on tour was that from early on in his career he used an oversized frame and was quick to convert to polyester when the Luxilon craze started.
Only recently has Sampras made the move towards a bigger size, but was able to give Federer a hard time in their exhibition matches. Much like it did for Federer, the 90-inch frame with hybrid polyester/gut stringing has helped Sampras produce more power with less effort whilst maintaining touch and a solid response. “You can still swing hard and have control,” said Sampras in San Jose. “It’s a great combination, almost like cheating!”
Though the game’s champions tend to stick to their sticks, changing to a bigger size has brought welcome results for some. The best move was probably John McEnroe’s switch from the conventional wooden Dunlop Maxply McEnroe to the Dunlop Max 200G, which helped him to his Wimbledon title in 1983 and then record the best season win-loss in men’s tennis history in 1984.
Martina Navratilova adopted a Yonex mid-plus racquet in the early 1980s that helped her dominate the tour, while Chris Evert was able to get a late surge in her career and break her rival’s utter dominance by switching to the Wilson Pro Staff 85 and going on to beat Martina at the 1985 and 1986 Roland Garros finals.
In the 1990s, Michael Chang was able to stay close to the top using an extended frame that made up for his lack of height – rather like Marion Bartoli, who uses an extended frame to make the most of her two-handed shots. Thomas Muster also got better results on faster surfaces after he started using an extended racquet, though he admitted afterwards that the same extended frame made him lose his edge on clay courts.
THE WEAPONS OF A NEW GENERATION
Federer himself describes Rafael Nadal’s game as “awkward,” and against it he – and everybody else – needs as much help as they can get.
An ailing Federer lost to a 17-year-old Nadal in Miami in 2004 the first time they met; by 2005, they had started facing each other regularly and it became clear that the Spaniard’s vicious lefty spins affected his execution not only on the baseline but also at the net or returning his slice serve on the ad court. Armed with a powerful 100 square-inch frame and using a polyester string, Rafael Nadal has developed a game style that has almost literally been molded by new technology – the modern racquet is big enough to give him margin for error even with his extreme grips and heavily topspun forehands, which are hit with an estimated 4,800 rpm (400 more than Federer’s). The power of the Babolat frame is tamed with a stiff string that tremendously enhances spin while keeping the ball within the limits of the court.
Three years into their rivalry, Roger Federer is still playing with the smallest racquet frame on tour and is no longer the dominant force he once was. He lost the epic Wimbledon final against Nadal after 4 hours and 48 minutes in dark conditions – the 10 inch. discrepancy in their racquet heads must have been more significant than ever at 9.16 pm. Could the mere five points that separated them on the Centre Court eventually have been reversed with five more square inches in Federer racquet?
The lack of square inches is even more evident on clay, especially when Nadal is hitting his high-bouncing shots to Federer’s backhand. Sampras’s Pro Staff 85 seemed too small in his Roland Garros campaigns, and these days, so does Federer’s.
Does racquet size really matter? Most professionals opt for control over power, and tend to use smaller frames than recreational players. Making the right pick depends on matching the type of racquet and style of play, plus fine-tuning of the racquet specs and string combination. A sweet spot that is five percent bigger could provide a lot more comfort, boosting the margin over error when under pressure and providing a little more power to break the best defense.
Andy Murray was spot-on at Wimbledon when he described the shanking nightmare that is facing Nadal: “He puts so much spin on the ball that it is difficult to find the middle of the racquet.”
So perhaps the first step for Federer should be not a new set of tactics or change in approach, but simply getting a bigger ‘middle of the racquet’ – a bigger sweet spot, thanks to a slightly bigger racquet.
