Ten: Tennis schedule 'ridiculous,' fumes Federer

AAP General News (Australia)
08-14-2008
Ten: Tennis schedule 'ridiculous,' fumes Federer

BEIJING, Aug 14 AFP - Roger Federer complained the Olympic tennis schedule was "ridiculous"

after playing six matches in four days.

The top seed won his singles match against Tomas Berdych and had just one hour and
40 minutes to recover before returning for the doubles.

"I find it a little bit ridiculous that we're playing maybe 11 matches in seven days,
to be honest," Federer said.

"I know it rained the first day. But quite honestly, I don't understand why we don't
play such a big tournament over 10 days maybe.

"That's the only regret I have at the moment because I think this is asking just a
little bit too much and too much trouble."

The event is Grand Slam-size but played in almost half the time -- eight days rather
than a fortnight -- and most of the first day was lost to rain.

Rafael Nadal started playing at 10.30am on Monday and didn't finish until late that evening.

The same day, Sam Querrey played Igor Andreev - and then stayed on court to face him
in the doubles.

Federer complained the format was "very hard" on the players, most of whom will compete
in the US Open which starts a week on Monday.

"They've made it very hard on us players and I wish there were extra days for us to
play," Federer said.

"But that's the way it is right now."

The Swiss has played two previous Olympics, finishing fourth in 2000 and losing in
round two four years ago.

"I know the difficulty of trying to win a medal here," he said.

"It's a difficult forum, winning six matches in seven days plus five doubles matches
if you want to win gold there as well."

AFP jds

KEYWORD: OLY08 TEN FEDERER

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