Roger Federer will concentrate on both his own fitness and the state of his new prototype racquet as he waits for a second-round opponent to emerge for his Thursday afternoon start at the Swiss Open. The top seed, who has been playing since last week with a larger, 98-square-inch racquet after competing for most of his career with a 90-square-inch model, remains quietly confident that he will be able to make the big switch before travelling to Canada in little more than a week to prepare for the Montreal Masters.
"This racket will probably change over the next few months, we will keep tinkering with it," said Federer, working closely with his manufacturer. "I've tried a lot of models and this is the one I like the best. "I'll play Gstaad with it and then we can look ahead. The plan for now is to continue with this racquet."
The ATP number five is the top seed in Gstaad as he returns to the iconic alpine village for the first time since winning the event in 2004. Federer is trying to put behind him his loss in the semi-final last week in Hamburg to Argentine qualifier Federico Delbonis, also playing here.