Federer rediscovers hunger for the perfect Paris match. Neil Harman, Tennis Correspondent, in Paris Paris is on heat and Roger Federer exudes cool. Three days before the championship that is supposed to determine the extent of his illustriousness and you would believe he is preparing for nothing more strenuous than an evening stroll in the Bois de Boulogne. Unless Federer wins the French Open, he is not a man, they say; he needs this, chirrup others or his status is forever demeaned. The best player in the world ought to win the most challenging of all the grand-slam tournaments, this dirt-encrusted marathon at Roland Garros where, as the Swiss says himself, “so many great battles have been fought”. Pausing yesterday to stand four-square with his new Wilson (K) Six.One racket – which purports to increase “dwell” time of the ball upon impact and provide greater control and comfort with a larger sweet spot – Federer looked like the biggest sweet spot in the sport, utterly ready for all that Rafael Nadal and any of his other six prospective opponents here will send his way. It is eight years since a callow 17-year-old lost his first match here to Pat Rafter, of Australia – coached, as irony would have it, by Tony Roche, with whose services Federer dispensed a fortnight ago. “I had a wild card from the French Federation which I’ll never forget. My parents and a few friends were watching, I was playing on Suzanne Lenglen and I was unbelievable for a set,” Federer recalled. “I broke him first and he broke back but it was one of those times when I knew I would always be comfortable playing the big players on the big stages. The difference was leaving with one [ranking] point or maybe 45 but I suppose they didn’t mean quite so much to me back then.” Now, every one he earns or drops is examined with a fine tooth-comb. Four defeats this year leading into the Hamburg tournament – one to his clay-court nemesis Nadal in the Monte Carlo final and another, unbelievably, to local hero Filippo Volandri in Italy, had led Federer to part company with Roche and take a long, hard look at himself. “The situation with Tony had become really complex because all of a sudden we just didn’t talk any more,” Federer said. “Imagine if we had spoken more often, with all he knows and all I know, where we might be, but the communication went, we would spend time on the practice court and barely say a word. It was sad but people change and times change. “I suppose it is a special thing to coach me because of the set-up I have, how I am, how I see tennis and I know, as well, what is best for me. For me and my game, it is hard to have a coach but I remain open to anything. I’ve always had the gift that if someone tells me something I can do it in five minutes. I don’t need an hour.” Flying to Hamburg, unfettered but fretting, Federer told himself to start being himself again. “I had to get my attitude right,” he said, “so I played doubles with Stan [Stanislas Wawrinka] and made sure I was 100 per cent for everything. I just felt I hadn’t been there in Monte Carlo or Rome, my attitude wasn’t right, it wasn’t me. I had to show myself, my fighting spirit, the Federer tough guy. The way I won and the way I played – well, let ’s just say that I like to prove the world wrong. And this is a long season. We talk about the French Open for two months, I only talk about Wimbledon for two weeks.” But this time, having beaten Nadal for the first time in six clay-court matches, there was none of the back-slapping, happy-smiley exchanges that had adorned the Monte Carlo podium three weeks earlier. Federer is aware that people think he is too cosy towards Nadal, that in trying to kill the Spaniard with kindness he had lost some of his edge. “I disagree totally,” he said. “I don’t think we’re that close but I know people said we were perhaps too close. We had issues last year but they were mainly with Rafa’s uncle [Toni Nadal and his ‘coaching’ from the stands] but those are over now and I never had anything against Rafa, who has always been very respectful towards me. When you consider he’s still just 20, he is very impressive, because I know I couldn’t have handled all that he has to deal with when I was that young. He has been No 2, breathing down my neck for over 100 weeks now. “He is a great person and he has come up with the goods on clay again this year. We played an exhibition in Majorca a couple of weeks ago and he probably thought I wanted to kill him and he probably wanted to kill me but I said ‘let’s play it cool, there are enough times when we have to fight for every point. Let’s entertain’. He is fair, he’s a great rival.” There is an insistence, too, from Federer, that he is not Rafa-obsessed, a point that has been made since he has recently indulged Jonathan Eysseric, the French No 1 junior and a left-hander, like Nadal, with plenty of practice time. “Yes, he is a leftie and there aren’t too many of those around but he came to Switzerland and I said I’d help, ” Federer said. “Tomorrow, I shall be practising with Tim Henman on Court Philippe Chatrier. I am preparing for everything.” --

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