Roger Federer just lost the finals of the ATP World Tour Championships 6-7 5-7 against Novak Djokovic in an incredible match. The match was played at a very high level from these two great champions and a lot of lessons can be learned watching a match like this.
Even though Roger lost, I want to continue with Part 2 of Learning from Roger. In my next blog post I will continue with some lessons to be learned from Novak Djokovic so stay tuned for that!
First let’s take a quick look at a video about the ATP World Tour finals. The ATP has really put together a phenomenal event in the O2 Arena in London and even though the top guys can be a bit tired at the end of the season, it is obvious that their motivation is really high to do well in this great tournament.
The ATP World Tour Finals – A Spectacular Event In London
More Lessons From Roger Federer
1. From Defense To Neutral
Most rec players make the mistake of overhitting from defensive positions. They often cannot escape the temptation and try to do something spectacular when really they should simply get the ball back in play.
When you are on defense your goal should be to get back to a neutral position and NOT to go straight from a defensive position to an offensive position!
Roger Federer is a great example for this. Usually when opponents hit really good offensive shots to Federer, he simply tries to get the ball back deep and more to the middle of the court. This allows him to recover and get back to a neutral position.
When he manages to get into that neutral position, he can then look for an opportunity to get into an offensive position on the next shot.
Have A Look At Roger Neutralizing Several Times In This Video
2. Efficient Movement
Another key to Roger’s success that you can copy is his efficient movement. It looks like Roger moves effortless around the court. And in fact he manages to get the maximum result out of the effort that he puts into his movement, which is the definition of efficiency.
Nevertheless keep in mind that he still puts a ton of effort into his movement and movement training, which is just another way of saying that he works hard and smart at the same time!
When it comes to movement training the key once again is to work hard and smart. Most people focus only on the hard part but when you watch Roger it becomes obvious that efficient movement is the real key to covering the court well!
In the following video we can see a great animation for Roger’s movement. As you can see he does not cover the greatest amount of distance. Instead he always moves back to the optimal recovery point and then manages to get into the optimal hitting position in a short period of time
Roger’s Efficient Movement
3. Own Your Serve
We’ve all heard that the serve is the most important shot in Tennis and for a lot most players that is certainly true. What most people don’t realize though is that you don’t necessarily need a huge serve to have an efficient serve.
Most rec players overhit on the serve and underestimate how important a high first serve percentage is!
Federer once again is a great role model in this regard. Even though Federer can serve huge, he does not elect to do so all that often. Instead he manages to get a high percentage of first serves in most of the time and that is what makes it so tough to break him.
Ideally you want to be able to hit big serves and have a high serve percentage. In order to do that you need great technique and lots of practice.
Have A Look At Roger Hitting 4 Aces In A Row
As you can see Roger can obviously do it both. He can hit huge serves and he can keep a high first serve percentage.
One easy thing you can do to win more service games is to keep count of your first serve percentage and try to get it into the 60-70% range. If you are consistently below that range simly risk less on your first serves!
Whenever you have plenty of time to invest, I would then recommend working on your serve technique so that you can hit big and with a high percentage in the long run!
As usual let me know what you think in the comments below!
