Roger Federer jokes he is ‘missing out’ on fast courts at Pala Alpitour, hails ‘incredible’ atmosphere in Turin

Roger Federer interview

There have been many complaints about tennis courts being too slow, but the speed of the court was not a problem during the ATP Finals at Pala Alpitour and Roger Federer believes he “missed out”.

There have been several debates about speed of the surfaces around the world in recent months with many bemoaning the fact that many courts are not fast enough to produce interesting matches.

However, that discussion took a back seat in Turin last week as the conditions at Pala Alpitour was rated among the fastest on the ATP Tour.

Federer, who for the second consecutive year missed the season-ending tournament due to his long-standing knee injury, was interviewed on Italian TV by his coach Ivan Ljubicic during the inaugural staging of the event in Turin.

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The 20-time Grand Slam winner, who prefers faster courts, admitted it “would have been nice” to play at Pala Alpitour.

“The courts here this year are actually quite fast, we would have had a lot of fun, maybe in the future we’ll have the opportunity to enjoy them,” Ljubicic said to Federer.

The Swiss replied: “I heard also the US Open was fast, I’m hearing the Tour Finals is fast, so I’m missing out.

“It’s all good, it’s part of the game, I’ve had a great career so far, and I’ve learned a lot on the slow courts, I’ve enjoyed playing on the fast courts as well, but also clay is where I grew up, so no problem. But it would have been nice to be in Turin instead of being in Switzerland right now, that’s for sure.”

After 11 years at London’s The O2 Arena, the ATP Finals moved to Turin this year and the inaugural campaign was a huge success and Federer has enjoyed the tournament.

“On TV it looks really good, obviously I see a lot of similarities to London and The O2 in terms of the way the court is presented, which makes a lot of sense of course. But I hope the Italian flair and everything is there,” he said.

“Also when [Matteo] Berrettini was playing and Jannik [Sinner] was playing, I thought crowds were incredible; I was really happy to see that.

“Of course having played Houston, Shanghai and London, I would have loved to play in Turin this year or next year, but we’ll see how it goes.

“But the matches have been incredible. What I love to see is also all the players being really consistent, the Medvedevs, the Rublevs, the Zverevs, with Novak we can always expect it but the younger guys are really stepping up and are playing great tennis, it’s been fun to watch.”

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