Summary: <img width="1024" height="576" src="https://blog.tennisevolution.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Why-Roger-Federer-Is-The-Best-Player-In-The-World-Right-Now-1024x576.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="" style="float: left; margin: 0 15px 15px 0;"><p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-13122" src="https://blog.tennisevolution.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Why-Roger-Federer-Is-The-Best-Player-In-The-World-Right-Now-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576"></p> <div class="smart-track-player-container stp-color-2d7bbf-EEEEEE"></div> <h2>Show Notes</h2> <p>Hey, it’s Jeff Salzenstein, founder of Tennis Evolution, USTA High Performance coach, and former top 100 ATP player, and in today’s podcast, we’re going to talk about Roger Federer.</p> <p>Of course, you want to hear about Roger Federer, right? He’s the most popular player in tennis, he’s an absolute icon, a champion for our sport, an amazing ambassador who is contributing to the game in so many ways, and here he is at 35 years old—almost 36 years old, and he’s playing the best tennis in the world. Yes, he is arguably… well, we don’t even have to argue about it. He is number 1 in the world from the beginning of the year, he won the Australian open he won the BNP Paribas Open, and I don’t see the Fed Express slowing down anytime soon. Why? Well, there’s a couple of reasons.</p> <p>Number one: his switch to a bigger racket really enables him to get a cleaner cut at the ball. In other words, he has less mishits, he hits the ball cleaner, which raises his confidence. And Federer is a confidence player just like anyone else out there. And the fact that his ball strike has improved because of the racket, that really helps him a lot, especially on the forehand and the backhand side. So, the racket has helped his game.</p> <p>The time off: being off for 6 months after the knee injury. Now, I’ll be honest. I wasn’t sure he could come back after a knee injury like that. I didn’t know that he could come back a hundred percent healthy. Anytime you cut on the knee, there’s a lot of apprehension, a lot of uncertainty. But the fact that he’s been able to come back and feel like he can move as well as ever—if not, better, at 35, is a testament to him, and his training, and his team. So, good for him for taking those 6 months off, getting rested mentally and physically and regrouping.</p> <p>So, he got the break, he got the bigger racket, now what? He comes out and he commits to his one-handed backhand. He is coming over that one-handed backhand, he’s driving it, he’s hitting angles, he’s hitting down the line groundstroke winners, he’s hitting drive backhand returns. This is a guy who used to be content with slicing a lot of returns, being more passive. Not anymore. </p>
