How To Challenge Federer on Grass
There are lessons to be learned from Radek Stepanek’s victory over Roger Federer on the red clay courts at the Foro Italico in Rome last year. Stepanek, who beat Federer in two tie-breakers, is one of the rare serve and volleyers on Tour these days. Stepanek’s strategy against Federer included serving and volleying the majority of the time on his first serve
and occasionally on his second serve. Stepanek has a good, not great serve, but his goal was always to force the action and keep the points short. On Federer’s serve, Stepanek mixed things up, especially on Federer’s second serve by sometimes chipping and charging and occasionally hitting a drop shot return. When he did get into the rare longer rally with Federer, Stepanek worked the ball around, often trying to expose Federer’s backhand wing by playing wide to Federer’s forehand. There are few players who challenge Federer by coming to net a lot, but this was also the strategy that Pete Sampras employed against Federer during their series of exhibition matches a couple years ago. Former Wimbledon Champion, Boris Becker, has also said that his approach to playing Federer on grass would be to force the action, keep the points short and not let Federer have a chance to get into control of the rally. Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and David Nalbandian have all had success beating Federer using their own special talents, but on the slick grass courts at Wimbledon coming to net more and forcing Federer to win by hitting a lot of passing shots is a tactic worth pursuing.
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