Roger Federer debuted his new racquet, with a larger 98 square-inch frame, on Wednesday in a three-sets win over Daniel Brands at the bet-at-home Open - German Tennis Championships.
“I’m pleased how it’s playing,” he said after the match. “I kind of knew it from practice, so it wasn’t like just jumping into the water, but I'm very happy that under match conditions I was feeling comfortable with it. I’m satisfied.”
Federer used the extra time following his early exit at Wimbledon to make the switch from the 90 square-inch racquet head he’s been using for more than a decade.
“I’ve been very close on numerous occasions to change racquets in a bigger way,” he said. “But then very often, time was the issue. Maybe also just the records of Grand Slams - I was always keeping on playing quarters and semis - so then it was also a bit more difficult to change it because of the time.
“This time around, all of a sudden I just had the extra 10 days, two weeks I was looking for, and I really was very serious about it. Wilson flew to Switzerland and we went through the whole process and I was very happy how things went over there.”
While he did not elaborate on the specific changes, Federer called it a “different type of racquet”, sharing that Wilson has been working on the prototype for many years.
“I’ve been testing racquets, in a way, for my whole career,” said the 31 year old. “I’ve had changes to my old racquet in the last sort of 10, 11 years ever since I changed here actually in 2002 from the 85 to the 90. We’ve always been in close contact and I know they’ve been always working on things.
“After I lost at Wimbledon, I thought this is a good time to go and test the racquets, to take a bit of time off and then add some tournaments and see was there enough time to change or not. I'm happy I did the change and now we'll see how it goes. So far, so good.”
“This time around, all of a sudden I just had the extra 10 days, two weeks I was looking for, and I really was very serious about it. Wilson flew to Switzerland and we went through the whole process and I was very happy how things went over there.”
While he did not elaborate on the specific changes, Federer called it a “different type of racquet”, sharing that Wilson has been working on the prototype for many years.
“I’ve been testing racquets, in a way, for my whole career,” said the 31 year old. “I’ve had changes to my old racquet in the last sort of 10, 11 years ever since I changed here actually in 2002 from the 85 to the 90. We’ve always been in close contact and I know they’ve been always working on things.
“After I lost at Wimbledon, I thought this is a good time to go and test the racquets, to take a bit of time off and then add some tournaments and see was there enough time to change or not. I'm happy I did the change and now we'll see how it goes. So far, so good.”
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