Roger Federer has been one of the premier hard-court performers on the ATP World Tour throughout his career. But since the beginning of 2017, when the Swiss was as low as No. 17 in the ATP Rankings, he has far exceeded his already-impressive average win-rate on the surface.

In fact, Federer has led the Tour with a 52-4 record (92.9 per cent) on hard courts during that span, winning seven of his nine tour-level titles on the surface since the start of last year. Five of those seven triumphs came at either an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event (2017 Indian Wells, 2017 Miami, 2017 Shanghai) or a Grand Slam (2017 & 2018 Australian Open).

But perhaps what is most impressive is that the 97-time tour-level champion has far exceeded the best win-loss rates on the surface in the history of the sport. According to the FedEx ATP Performance Zone, Novak Djokovic has the highest all-time winning percentage on hard courts, triumphing an impressive 84.2 per cent of the time, with Federer right behind at 83.4 per cent.

Best Career Records On Hard Courts

Then, you can compare that stretch to the best career records on other surfaces. Rafael Nadal is undeniably the greatest clay-court performer in history, winning 91.7 per cent of his matches (389-35). Don Budge leads the way on grass with a 52-5 record (91.2 per cent).

Sure, Federer’s run of success has lasted just more than a year at this point, but 56 matches is not a small sample size. And when you take a look at the rest of the Swiss’ career, it shows that Federer’s recent win-loss record on hard courts is not a fluke. In 2005, the right-hander won 50 of 51 hard-court matches (98 per cent) on the surface and followed that up the next year by winning 59 of 61 (96.7 per cent) matches. In total, he has exceeded a 90 per cent win-rate on hard courts for an entire season four times. This year, he is off to a 12-0 start.

Federer’s Best Years On Hard Courts

One of the leading factors spurring this recent run is that in 14 of his 56 matches since the beginning of last year, Federer has not faced a break point, and in nine more, he saved each break opportunity held against him.

So, how has he been so successful on hard courts recently? Former World No. 1 Jim Courier says that one shot in particular has improved dramatically.

“Roger’s addition of backhand aggression from the start of 2017 has had a massive impact on his results,” Courier told ATPWorldTour.com. “To go 4-0 [all on hard courts] versus Nadal last year was awfully impressive and due in large part to the backhand wing.”

And while this hard-court run has been magnificent, Courier says that it’s not just about the surface.

“Roger is impressive on all surfaces, including hard courts, due to his all court acumen and fantastic technique,” Courier said.

Federer now enters a critical stretch of events at the BNP Paribas Open and the Miami Open presented by Itau — the first two ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events of the season — where he defends 2,000 ATP Rankings points from last season’s victories. Federer will have to be at his best, as he must advance to at least the semi-finals in Indian Wells to maintain his spot atop the ATP Rankings. 

After an entertaining final featuring Top 10 stars Juan Martin del Potro and Kevin Anderson, the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC concluded its 25th edition. But, it was not just Del Potro who was celebrating. ATP Executive Chairman and President Chris Kermode presented Renata Burillo, Chairman of Grupo Pegaso, and Tournament Director Raul Zurutuza with a trophy honouring the Acapulco event’s place as one of the Tournaments of the Year in the 2017 ATP World Tour Awards presented by Moët & Chandon.

Read & Watch Highlights: Del Potro Wins 21st Tour-Level Title

Ten years after first receiving this award, the Abierto Mexicano Telcel has once again been named the ATP World Tour 500 Tournament of the Year. The event, held at the Acapulco Princess Mundo Imperial, switched to blue hard courts in 2014 after 20 years on clay. Tickets for all sessions of the 25th edition were sold out months before the start of the event.

“It is an honour for Grupo Pegaso to receive this recognition from the players of the ATP World Tour,” said Renata Burillo, President of Grupo Pegaso. “It is the best way to start our 25th anniversary celebrations. We thank the players, all the fans, the media and sponsors that made this possible. We will work hard to keep improving in the years to come.”

Zurutuza said that the award was a recognition of the tournament’s long list of enhancements. “We moved Court Three and Court Four… to the parking lot. We moved the press room, we have a new television compound, we added 1,500 seats to the main stadium,” he said. “Those improvements are well deserved for a tournament that sold all of the tickets within two months of announcing the player field.”

The Tournament of the Year awards, voted annually by ATP World Tour players, recognise the leading standards set across the three tournament categories on the Tour. The BNP Paribas Open and the Qatar ExxonMobil Open won the remaining two awards, in the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 and 250 tournament categories respectively.

Visit the official ATP World Tour Awards section on ATPWorldTour.com.

It is one of the most important times of year on the ATP World Tour — the world’s best gather in Indian Wells, California, for the first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event of the season: the BNP Paribas Open. Roger Federer, the five-time champion and World No. 1, leads the field into the Coachella Valley where he is defending the 1,000 ATP Rankings points he claimed last year. 

1) No. 1 for Now: Five-time champion Roger Federer defends his title and No. 1 ATP Ranking when he returns to the BNP Paribas Open. Federer will remain the World No. 1 if he reaches the semi-finals. Otherwise, Rafael Nadal re-claims No. 1 on 19 March for his fifth stint in the top spot and the 168th week of his career.

2) Fantastic Fed: Federer, 36, is the oldest World No. 1 in ATP Rankings history and owns records for the most weeks at No. 1 (306 as of 12 March), years since No. 1 debut (14) and years between stints at No. 1 (5). The Swiss is 64-5 with nine tour-level titles since returning in 2017 from a left-knee injury.

3) Novak Seeks Title No. 6: Following a “small medical intervention” on his right elbow, Novak Djokovic is scheduled to compete for just the second time since Wimbledon. Djokovic lost to Hyeon Chung in the Australian Open fourth round on 22 January before undergoing surgery. He is a five-time BNP Paribas Open champion, tied with Federer for the most titles in tournament history (since 1976).

4) Three’s The Limit: After reaching finals at two of the past three Grand Slam events, Marin Cilic became the World No. 3. The Croat is the 16th player to be ranked No. 3 since 25 July 2005. Only four players during that span have been in the Top 2 (Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Andy Murray).

5) Breaking Back: Juan Martin del Potro and Kevin Anderson have broken back into the Top 10 this season. Del Potro dropped to No. 1,045 before beginning his comeback from three left-wrist surgeries in 2016. Anderson fell to No. 80 after spending one week inside the Top 10 in 2015.

6) Delpo On The Rise: The Argentine is fresh off of winning the title at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC, where he beat three Top 8 players consecutively to clinch his first ATP World Tour 500-level trophy since 2013 Basel. Del Potro is now up to No. 8 in the ATP Rankings. 

7) #NextGenATP Turns 2: Alexander Zverev, Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz were 18 when they helped launch #NextGenATP at the 2016 BNP Paribas Open. They are among the hottest players on Tour two years later. Zverev is ranked in the Top 5, Tiafoe captured the Delray Beach Open title on 25 February, and Fritz won the Oracle Challenger Series title in Newport Beach on 28 January.

8) Wild Cards: Four of the five wild cards are Americans: Ernesto Escobedo, Bradley Klahn, Reilly Opelka and Tennys Sandgren. Aussie #NextGenATP star Alex de Minaur, who reached the Sydney final, is the other wild card. De Minaur, Escobedo and Sandgren are making their main draw debut at Indian Wells.

9) Frenchman Rising: No. 1 Frenchman Lucas Pouille has reached three finals in the past four weeks, highlighted by his fifth ATP World Tour title at Marseille on 11 February. Pouille is at a career-high No. 12 in the ATP Rankings. 

10) Double Your Fun: Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic enter the BNP Paribas Open with an 18-2 record on the season, sweeping doubles titles in January at Doha, Auckland and the Australian Open. Also in the draw are Californians Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan, who will make their 20th consecutive appearance at the BNP Paribas Open. The Bryans won the Indian Wells title in 2013 and 2014.

No. 16 Roberto Bautista Agut, +7
The Spaniard clinched his second ATP World Tour title of the season (Auckland), and eighth tour-level crown, at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, beating France’s Lucas Pouille in the final. Bautista Agut became the first player outside the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings to win the tournament since Fabrice Santoro in 2002, after overcoming Borna Coric, Malek Jaziri and Pouille in straight sets. The 29-year-old jumps seven positions to No. 16. Read and Watch Highlights

No. 8 Juan Martin del Potro, +1
The 29-year-old won his biggest title since 2013 (Basel) at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC, overcoming US Open finalist Kevin Anderson in Saturday’s final. Del Potro navigated a tough draw in Acapulco, beating Mischa Zverev, four-time champion David Ferrer, and Top 10 stars Alexander Zverev, Dominic Thiem and Anderson to lift the trophy. The title was Del Potro’s 21st crown on the ATP World Tour and his earliest triumph in a season since his 2014 success at the Sydney International (d. Tomic). The Argentine rises one spot to No. 8 in the ATP Rankings, his highest position since 3 August 2014. Read and Watch Highlights

No. 12 (Career High) Lucas Pouille, +3
Pouille climbs three places after reaching his third final in four weeks at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships (l. to Bautista Agut). The Frenchman avenged his Marseille final loss to Karen Khachanov before defeating seeds Yuichi Sugita and Filip Krajinovic to reach the championship match. The 24-year-old moves to a career-high No. 12 in the ATP Rankings. He could have broken into the Top 10 for the first time (at No. 10) with the Dubai title.

No. 48 (Career High) Jared Donaldson, +11
Donaldson reached his first ATP World Tour semi-final at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC. The American scored convincing back-to-back wins over Matthew Ebden and Feliciano Lopez to reach the last four, where he fell to New York Open champion Kevin Anderson. The 21-year-old soars 11 places to career-high No. 48 in the ATP Rankings.

No. 61 (Career High) Nicolas Jarry, +12
The 22-year-old ended his breakthrough Golden Swing with a runner-up finish at the Brasil Open (l. to Fognini). Jarry fought his way through to his first ATP World Tour final after hard-fought three-set wins over Dusan Lajovic, Guido Pella, Albert Ramos-Vinolas and Horacio Zeballos. The Chilean notched nine wins from 12 matches in Quito, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, with each of the three losses coming against the eventual champion. Jarry climbs 12 spots to a career-high No. 61 in the ATP Rankings.  Read and Watch Highlights

No. 84 Malek Jaziri, +33
The Tunisian scored a huge upset win over top seed Grigor Dimitrov en route to his first ATP World Tour semi-final since 2015 (Winston Salem) at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. Jaziri backed up his stunning win over the World No. 4 with wins over Robin Haase and #NextGenATP star Stefanos Tsitsipas, before falling to soon-to-be champion Bautista Agut in the last four. The 34-year-old flies 33 places up the ATP Rankings, re-entering the Top 100 at No. 84.

View ATP Rankings

Other Notable Top 100 Movers This Week
No. 26 Hyeon Chung, +3
No. 28 Filip Krajinovic, +6
No. 32 Feliciano Lopez, +6
No. 33 David Ferrer, +6
No. 54 Ryan Harrison, +6
No. 71 Stefanos Tsitsipas, +11
No. 75 Vasek Pospisil, +8
No. 93 Pierre-Hugues Herbert, +6

A LOOK BACK
Oracle Challenger Series Indian Wells (Indian Wells, U.S.A.): Martin Klizan capped a sun-drenched week of tennis in paradise, taking the title at the inaugural Challenger in Indian Wells on Sunday. The Slovakian defeated Darian King 6-3, 6-3 to lift his first trophy in two years, since prevailing at the ATP World Tour 500 event in Hamburg in 2016. Klizan, a former World No. 24, is on the comeback trail after struggling with a left calf injury last year. He registered impressive wins over Sergiy Stakhovsky, Henri Laaksonen, Peter Polansky, Vasek Pospisil and King to take the $150,000 title.

A five-time ATP World Tour champion, Sunday’s victory was Klizan’s seventh ATP Challenger Tour crown. The left-hander rose 52 spots in the ATP Rankings to No. 129.

Keio Challenger International Tennis Tournament (Yokohama, Japan): Yokohama celebrated its 13th edition with an all-Japanese final, as Yasutaka Uchiyama rallied past Tatsuma Ito 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Sunday. The 25-year-old lifted his second ATP Challenger Tour trophy and first in one year, since triumphing in Kyoto in 2017. He soars 77 spots to No. 213 in the ATP Rankings.

?? Yasutaka Uchiyama claims the title on home soil in Yokohama, battling past Tatsuma Ito 26 63 64. Second #ATPChallenger ?. Congrats @yasutaka0805! pic.twitter.com/XEclZQ9GuW

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) March 4, 2018

Punta Open (Punta del Este, Uruguay): Argentina’s Guido Andreozzi stormed back to upset sixth seed Simone Bolelli 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 at the inaugural event in Punta del Este. Andreozzi claimed his fifth Challenger crown and first since 2016. He leaps 52 spots in the ATP Rankings to No. 193. The Buenos Aires native scored a trio of three-set wins during the week in the Uruguayan resort town.

?? @guidoandreozzi is the champion at the inaugural @puntaopen in Punta del Este, rallying past Simone Bolelli 36 64 63 for his fifth #ATPChallenger ? pic.twitter.com/8KSom8EeMq

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) March 4, 2018

A LOOK AHEAD
In Zhuhai, China, top seed Jordan Thompson opens with a blockbuster clash against Serbian teen Miomir Kecmanovic. Malek Jaziri is seeded second, with Di Wu and Zhe Li leading the home charge.

Defending champion Rogerio Dutra Silva returns to Santiago, Chile, as the third seed, while three-time former titlist Facundo Bagnis is unseeded. Gastao Elias leads the field at the $50,000 event.