Roger Federer was experimenting with a larger racket after losing early at Wimbledon, but the 32-year-old says he is going back to his normal racket for the US Open.
Federer is out of the top four in the world rankings for the first time in 10 years and currently ranked No. 7 in the world. The Swiss sensation lost to Sergiy Stakhovsky in the second round at Wimbledon, ending his incredible streak of reaching 36 consecutive quarterfinals at grand slams. The Wimbledon upset was his worst performance at the tournament since 2002 (he’s won the tournament seven times since then).
Federer decided to switch things up and began playing with a racket that had a larger head. His new Wilson prototype is 98 square inches in head size, compared to the 90 square inch head he normally uses. Fed played with the prototype in Hamburg, where he lost in the semis, and in Gstaad, where he lost his first match (both were clay court tournaments).
Federer lost to Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals of the Cincinnati Masters event last week and confirmed that he is changing back to old reliable.
“I just felt like, you know what, I’m going to play with the old racquet through the US Open right now, and I’m going to do more racquet testing when I have, again, some more time after the U.S. Open,” Federer told reporters last week, via Beyond the Baseline. “Yeah, I was playing for a month with the black one, but it’s a prototype. At the end, I just felt like, you know what, right now I feel like I need to simplify everything and just play with what I know best.”
That’s probably a smart move. The racket change seemed like it was made out of desperation after a stunning and disappointing loss. He’s wise to stick with the racket he knows best for the major and then make a change after the grand slam season is over, if he feels he wants to change it up. Federer may be declining while Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray are improving, but he still should be good for at least a quarterfinal run at Flushing without messing with his equipment.
