What would your ideal schedule be If you were focused only on Grand Slams?

[Flint]

If you were one of these older top players who are allowed to pick and choose which tournaments you played, what would the ideal schedule be with the focus only and entirely on winning Grand Slams?

I am thinking something like:

Brisbane (plus doubles)
Australian Open.

Indian Wells (plus doubles)
Miami

Monte-Carlo (plus doubles)
Rome (plus doubles)
French Open

Queens Club/Halle (plus doubles)
Wimbledon

Washington
Rogers Cup or Cincinnati (plus doubles) (not both masters)
US Open

Shanghai
some pre Paris ATP 500
Paris
WTF (if qualified)

-The doubles tournaments to help dial in al court comfort and confidence in net play.
-Rogers cup OR Cincinnati: either Rogers cup and skip Cinci because you get more rest ahead of the US Open or skip Rogers cup and play Cinci because you get used to fast conditions. (Washington because it adds hard court matches while being early enough not to tire you out before the US Open).

 

[K-H]

If you were one of these older top players who are allowed to pick and choose which tournaments you played, what would the ideal schedule be with the focus only and entirely on winning Grand Slams?

I am thinking something like:

Brisbane (plus doubles)
Australian Open.

Indian Wells (plus doubles)
Miami

Monte-Carlo (plus doubles)
Rome (plus doubles)
French Open

Queens Club/Halle (plus doubles)
Wimbledon

Washington
Rogers Cup or Cincinnati (plus doubles) (not both masters)
US Open

Shanghai
some pre Paris ATP 500
Paris
WTF (if qualified)

-The doubles tournaments to help dial in al court comfort and confidence in net play.
-Rogers cup OR Cincinnati: either Rogers cup and skip Cinci because you get more rest ahead of the US Open or skip Rogers cup and play Cinci because you get used to fast conditions. (Washington because it adds hard court matches while being early enough not to tire you out before the US Open).

Why play IW and Miami if you're only focussed on winning Grand slams? There's no point playing them when there's no hardcourt GS straight after.

 

[Krish872007]

Hopman Cup Exhibition
Australian Open

Monte Carlo - maybe
Rome
Roland Garros

Halle
Wimbledon

Cincinnati
US Open

This is what I would do if I cared solely about Slams.

 

[Deleted member 688153]

If I was a pro and wasn't a consistent Top 2-3 player I would probably be resigned to not winning much in the way of slams. I would actually try to vulture as much as I could.
I'd definitely play Madrid, Canada, and Paris, which often have depleted fields. I would probably try to play a lot of clay and grass, too, which have less competition.

 

[Flint]

Why play IW and Miami if you're only focussed on winning Grand slams? There's no point playing them when there's no hardcourt GS straight after.

My thinking there is that it is so far away from the French Open that you don't want to go too extreme on not playing tournaments and be too rusty from lack of match play.

 

[Flint]

Hopman Cup Exhibition
Australian Open

Monte Carlo - maybe
Rome
Roland Garros

Halle
Wimbledon

Cincinnati
US Open

This is what I would do if I cared solely about Slams.

That certainly covers the needing rest and not burning out aspect of things, though there might be a danger of being too rusty from lack of matches with that schedule?
You wouldn't add any doubles play then?

 

[Flint]

If I was a pro and wasn't a consistent Top 2-3 player I would probably be resigned to not winning much in the way of slams. I would actually try to vulture as much as I could.
I'd definitely play Madrid, Canada, and Paris, which often have depleted fields. I would probably try to play a lot of clay and grass, too, which have less competition.

haha yes, "vulturing" 250/500's is a good option for an ageing top player as well.

 

[Deleted member 688153]

haha yes, "vulturing" 250/500's is a good option for an ageing top player as well.

I would play Barca, Halle, and Beijing like clockwork. Or the South American ones that no-one shows up for.

 

[MasturB]

Whatever Fred decides.

 

[Deleted member 688153]

Aiming to peak post-USO could be good. Everyone is tired/doesn't care, plus indoors is niche conditions and there are less players who can bring their best level there. Same as clay and grass.

Outdoor HC early in the season would be the worst. The AO, IW, and Miami all have full draws with fresh players and are the surface that the majority of players are the best at.

 

[Deleted member 688153]

Whatever Fred decides.

This too. Wherever Federer isn't.

 

[Flint]

I would play Barca, Halle, and Beijing like clockwork. Or the South American ones that no-one shows up for.

If I was going for vulturing then I would play Brisbane, 2 250/500's in February (probably buenos aires would be one of them) Barcalona, queens, newport, Washington etc.

In the fall season I would do Murrays 2014 fall season minus Shanghai for rest, Schenzen, China Open, Vienna, Valencia, Paris.

In the clay season, I would skip Monte-Carlo and replace with Munich (does that clash with Barcalona?). I would skip Miami as well to be fresh and prepared for it.

edit: probably skip IW as well for the reason you said.

 

[Krish872007]

That certainly covers the needing rest and not burning out aspect of things, though there might be a danger of being too rusty from lack of matches with that schedule?
You wouldn't add any doubles play then?

Maybe doubles at Hopman Cup and maybe doubles only at Indian Wells just to test out the net game, though it depends on a player's style.

The biggest issue would be rust I guess - can't really do much before the AO or after the US Open

 

[Deleted member 688153]

If I was going for vulturing then I would play Brisbane, 2 250/500's in February (probably buenos aires would be one of them) Barcalona, queens, newport, Washington etc.

In the fall season I would do Murrays 2014 fall season minus Shanghai for rest, Schenzen, China Open, Vienna, Valencia, Paris.

In the clay season, I would skip Monte-Carlo and replace with Munich (does that clash with Barcalona?). I would skip Miami as well to be fresh and prepared for it.

edit: probably skip IW as well for the reason you said.

Brisbane can be more stacked though. I'd probably do a Ferrer and play Auckland and 's-Hertogenbosch, and Valencia (is it still running?). And yeah, Munich and Newport.
Barca, Queens/Halle and Washington often have good players. Avoid.

I'd probably do Hamburg and Gstaad too if possible. Nobody ever plays those.

 

[Deleted member 688153]

And yeah I'd skip IW/Miami. Grueling tournaments with a lot of competition, and then I cut out the trip to the US too.

 

[Flint]

Brisbane can be more stacked though. I'd probably do a Ferrer and play Auckland and 's-Hertogenbosch, and Valencia (is it still running?). And yeah, Munich and Newport.
Barca, Queens/Halle and Washington often have good players. Avoid.

I'd probably do Hamburg and Gstaad too if possible. Nobody ever plays those.

Maybe replace FO and Queens/Halle with Stuttgart.

 

[Flint]

haha we could have the ultimate vulture schedule here

Auckland, skip AO, 2 clay events in Feb, skip IW and Miami, Munich, Barcalona, Madrid and Rome??, skip, FO, Stuttgart, Wimbledon, Newport, skip US Open series, then a bunch of 250's and 500's in the fall, skipping Shanghai. Im not even sure what order they come in If you add Hamburg and Gstaad.

 

[TheAverageFedererFan]

Here would be my schedule.

Doha
Australian Open
Dubai
Indian Wells
Miami
Madrid
Rome
French Open
Halle
Wimbledon
Canada
Cincinnati
US Open
Shanghai
Basel
Paris
World Tour Finals (If Qualified)

 

[aman92]

Skip the entire clay season to avoid humiliation from your closest rival

 

[fedtennisphan]

Skip the entire clay season to avoid humiliation from your closest rival

Then that rivals fanbase be butthurt because he lost to that player several times including a GS final then only cares about that player not playing clay due to wanting revenge.

 

[mike danny]

Skip the entire clay season to avoid humiliation from your closest rival

Fed should have got this memo more than a decade ago.

 

[mike danny]

It's really simple. Play an AO warm-up, preferably Brisbane as it is still in Australia, play 2 masters on clay before RG, preferably MC and Madrid as they are spaced, play 1 grass warm-up before Wimb and then play preferably Cincy before the USO.

Easy peasy.

 

[BeatlesFan]

Why play IW and Miami if you're only focussed on winning Grand slams? There's no point playing them when there's no hardcourt GS straight after.

Good point, but if you care about slams only, you must care about ranking. It's very rare that you have someone like Fed come into a slam ranked #17 and win it, but then again, that's Federer, not a mere mortal.

Playing IW and Miami are really necessary to wrack up points to bolster or maintain your ranking.

 

[BeatlesFan]

Skip the entire clay season to avoid humiliation...

Yeah, a guy with 19 slams, 300 weeks at #1 and by far the biggest name in tennis is accustomed to feeling "humiliation."

Epic fail.

 

[mike danny]

Good point, but if you care about slams only, you must care about ranking. It's very rare that you have someone like Fed come into a slam ranked #17 and win it, but then again, that's Federer, not a mere mortal.

Playing IW and Miami are really necessary to wrack up points to bolster or maintain your ranking.

I guess that's one way of looking at things.

Still, IW and Miami don't serve as warm-ups for anything. That's why I never understood their higher status compared to other masters 1000 (given that these 2 events are played over 2 weeks and provide a larger field of players).

 

[Fedforever]

Yeah, a guy with 19 slams, 300 weeks at #1 and by far the biggest name in tennis is accustomed to feeling "humiliation."

Epic fail.

It's weird how Fed being sensible and prioritising the tournaments where he has most chance of winning is portrayed as moral weakness. Actually, one thing I've always admired about Fed is his ability to see things as they are. He freely says that he wouldn't have beaten Rafa at FO this year. What really annoys the VB is that he doesn't care.

And if Rafa in a couple of years decides to skip Wimbledon to maximise his chances elsewhere then he has the right to do that too.

 

[BeatlesFan]

It's weird how Fed being sensible and prioritising the tournaments where he has most chance of winning is portrayed as moral weakness.

It's considered a "moral weakness" only by the *************. Everyone else on the planet realizes what a brilliant move it was to skip clay, and Fed will almost surely skip it for the rest of his career. Fed announced right after winning Miami that he was skipping it to "maximize my chances of winning Wimbledon."

He achieved his goal and completely vindicated his decision. I guess the ************* don't realize that at age 35, skipping clay is the wise thing to do and you can get other players will follow suit in the coming years when they get ancient like Fed.

 

[Fedforever]

It's considered a "moral weakness" only by the *************. Everyone else on the planet realizes what a brilliant move it was to skip clay, and Fed will almost surely skip it for the rest of his career. Fed announced right after winning Miami that he was skipping it to "maximize my chances of winning Wimbledon."

He achieved his goal and completely vindicated his decision. I guess the ************* don't realize that at age 35, skipping clay is the wise thing to do and you can get other players will follow suit in the coming years when they get ancient like Fed.

They do know it. It's just they want Fed to be agonizing over the fact that he never beat Rafa at RG, not accepting it and getting on with his life.