Roger Federer to skip French Open

Johnno, not if you're Fed. Fed could work half as hard as his usual workload, and still be top 10-15 probably if he remained remotely healthy and played a full year's schedule. Most of the guys at 150 aren't nearly as skilled, talented, and/or athletic as top 10 guys are, for sure. Most of them probably work as hard, though. However, many of them don't work as hard, that's one reason why they aren't ranked firmly inside the top 100. Fed could lollygag through the entire year, show up at the 4 GS only and pickup 300-400 points total easily. 3rd round at the GS gets you 90 points, I'm sure Fed could do that. Leonardo Mayer is currently 150 with 389 points. If Fed then showed up at 3-4 Masters tourneys along with playing Basel obviously, there's another 150-200 total points at least he'd pickup easily. He'd be firmly inside the top 100. Norbert Gombos is currently 100 with 536 points. This would be him playing less than half the year and working on his game much less than he'd normally do.

I'm sure most players aren't physically perfect and have something wrong with them. Nadal is an amazing athlete. Even if there's something wrong with his feet, he's much more gifted athletically than almost any other player. His style of play is grind-it-out and he stays on court longer than power players usually. All of this leads to more injuries. Actually, Fed has had back problems before several times. Like I mentioned before, can you remember a time Fed has ever looked tired on court? If you're suggesting he's doping, please provide some evidence. Tennis players are probably tested more than in any other sport. Even if Sharapova is lying, which doesn't seem likely, the substance that she was banned for using barely helps performance at best and most likely is negligible, and she had been using it for her health for years prior to the ban. What I'm saying is that the tennis world cracks down hard on drug users, even if not PEDs, too.

If you wanna be ranked 1 or 150 you basically have to work just as hard. you can't cruise at all express if you wanna be a top 150 player in the world it's a full time job.

I sure money is only a small part of it - he obviously loves the sport and still feels he can compete - why wouldn't he keep playing.

Nadal has a congenital disorder with his feet, which also causes problems with his ankles and knees. It's certainly suspicious Federer's luck with injuries. Not even a back problem like those that crippled Sampras with his similar style.

Spot on, express34texas. How many players would love to have their whole career mirror what Federer has achieved in just the last five years.

I'm sure money is part of it, but if that was his driving force, he wouldn't bother keeping himself at the top of the game as much. Even if he was only ranked in the 15-20 range or whatever, the endorsements would still all be there. He obviously loves the game, and still wants to play at a high level. Not every player feels the same. He's probably a billionaire by now or pretty close, he doesn't need anymore money. Murray's hardly dominating, just one GS in the past 4 years, and Fed has won their past 5 matchups. Beny, since the 2013 AO, Fed has played 15 GS events. He's made the QF 11x, SF 9x, F 4x, and won 1x. That's hardly 'not doing a thing over the last 5 years.' All of this from ages 31-35. Almost nobody wins GS past 30-31, and couple that with the next best players in the world in their primes still in their mid-20s, obviously he isn't going to be able to win at the same rate as he once did.

It's not luck. Fed has been in the best shape of anyone on tour for a long time, too. Do you ever remember seeing him looking tired out there? Whereas, Nadal often looks tired. Nadal's time on court on average is much longer than Fed's. There's obvious reasons why Fed is healthier. Last year was a freak injury, too, not a tennis injury, why Fed missed so much time primarily. Fed is 35, which is ancient for tennis. 30 is old for tennis, you do the math. It doesn't make that much sense to me for him to miss the FO, but he knows his body better than anyone else. No matter how good in shape you are, the older you get, the more likely for your body to break down.

Actually more like 20% of the tour is on clay. Keep dreaming Fed is pulling out because of Nadal, especially this year since he's owning him. That makes no sense. Grass is how tennis is meant to be played on, and Wimby is still by far the most prestigious tourney. If Nadal was as good as Fed on other surfaces, they would've met probably 25-35 additional times. They've never met at the USO for example.

Money, Fed makes a fortune from endorsements just by staying on tour like Tiger Woods. Even if you past it, you make a fortune by endorsements. Greg Norman was the same, he still made a fortune in sponsorship just by staying on the golf tour.

And the other half as been on surfaces that favour Federer.... 40% of the tour is played on clay. Clay is a more legitimate surface than grass. Only a few tournaments played on grass.

It's a good question. Why is he even still on the tour? He's hardly done a thing over the last five years. Djokovic and Murray have dominated and Fed has been hardly seen on the Winner's podium.

And that's because out of the 37 matches they've played head to head, nearly half of them have been on a surface that completely favours Nadal.

Which makes his decision to completely pull out really strange. Federer still would have been a chance to go deep without much preparation given Djokovic and Murray are no longer forces. I think he waited this long to assess Nadal's form otherwise he would have announced this weeks ago. He knows he can't beat Nadal on a surface that favours Nadal.

I think it's achievable given he's never really suffered any injury at all until last year. Last year was the first time he missed a major in his entire career and that was due to an injury sustained slipping over in his bathroom. Nadal has missed 6 majors because of injury and been forced to withdraw from several more tournaments because of injury. He's missed two years worth of majors in his prime because of injury. Federer missed none. Extraordinary injury luck. Federer is probably in better condition physically than Nadal. Federer's game plan revolves around earning cheap points on serve so he'll be a contender on the hard courts and grass for several more years.

On a surface and in conditions that completely favour Federer. Nadal still owns Federer head-to-head.

'in order to play on the ATP tour for many years to come' - is he aiming to do a Connors or Rosewall and still be at it when he's 40?

Especially now that he's been him four times in a row and totally dismantled him in the fifth set of the Australian open.

In the cool light of day, you're right Scott, it was the best decision for Federer. I still can't help feeling that he still would have wrestled with the following before making his decision: 1. A currently out of form and and out of sorts Murray and Djokovic 2. A change in the 'mental state of play' between Federer and Nadal over the last five months 3. The possibility of a physically fresh Federer taking on Nadal who has won the last three clay tournaments and will in all likelihood win in Rome and give himself one week off before the French. It's now all moot.

Goes to show he psychologically fears Nadal.