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New Delhi: The 20-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer has suggested tournament directors to mix up the court speed, which he feels will generate more intense matches and upsets. The Swiss legend believes that the modern courts are slow and are helping the top players, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, to share the Slams between themselves.
Feder shared his thoughts during the Laver Cup 2025, stating that this puts the players who are less talented at a disadvantage. He was supervising the Laver Cup this year, which was won by Team World on Sunday by defeating Team Europe.
Speaking on Andy Roddick's podcast, Served with Andy Roddick, he pointed out that the slow courts have made it easy to return the serves in modern-day tennis.
He said, “I feel like they return so easily nowadays. I don’t know if the conditions are a bit slower or if they are just better at it. Making returns was hard. Now, they just stand there. That’s why I sliced it, just to float it in there and figure it out.”
When he was asked whether there is a need to adjust court surfaces to allow more unpredictable clashes, the 44-year-old agreed that it would give different style players a chance to showcase their talent better.
He explained that modern surfaces make it easier for even the best serves to be neutralised, pointing to how Reilly Opelka’s delivery can be returned with relative ease. In his view, tournaments should mix things up with both lightning-fast courts and slower ones so that players with different styles are forced to adapt.
Federer also argued that the modern scheduling and surface speed mean most players compete in a similar way across all events, which is why winning on clay, grass, and hard courts no longer requires the variety it did earlier. He said, “That’s how the ranking points used to be, do you remember? Back in the day, only 12 tournaments counted so everybody would play on their favorite surface."
Every week has basically become the same and it seems like the players are playing the same way on all surfaces. While Federer acknowledged that organisers slow courts to protect weaker players and extend rallies, he believes the game would benefit more from restoring those sharp stylistic contrasts that used to create classic matchups.
Alcaraz and Sinner have dominated the men's Grand Slam era after Federer and Rafael Nadal retired taking over the charge in the past two years as they share all the eight majors between them.
But the Laver Cup has brought into light the fact that they can be challenged as Taylor Fritz handed Alcaraz a surprising defeat, overturning Team World's deficit to a 15-9 victory. The tournament showcased that adaptability and performance can still deliver unexpected results on slow and uniform surfaces as well.
