Roger Federer racked up the 20th Grand Slam of his career in January as he stormed to victory in the Australian Open.
However, only one of those Grand Slams has come at the clay-court tournament French Open, where Rafael Nadal has dominated in Paris for the past decade.
Federer has always played second fiddle to Nadal, dubbed ‘the King of Clay’, and this year will likely be no different should the world No 1 decide to enter.
At 36 years of age, the Swiss star is being selective over which tournaments he enters and his decision to skip the clay-court season last year proved to be the right one as he went on to win Wimbledon and return to the top of the world rankings.
But despite Federer’s failure to replicate the same success he’s achieved on grass and hard courts on the clay, he insists he’s happy with how its panned out – and his decision to skip certain clay tournaments is nothing to do with him not liking the surface.
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“I am a clay-court player, essentially. I grew up on clay,” Federer said after his recent Match for Africa.
“I played even indoors on clay, that was my court in the winter.
“I was enjoying playing on clay, at the beginning on the Tour it was hard because I lost my first eleven (matches) and then at the French Open it took time to win, and then people thought, ’he doesn’t like clay.’
“Maybe because on the others (surfaces) results came easier and faster.
“Over time, because you have more success on hard, grass, indoors, you also start to make your schedule a little bit more around that.
“I think I am a good clay-court player but there are many many better players than me.
“I tried everything, I won a lot of Masters 1000 on clay, also the French Open, I came very close.
“I am really happy with my clay-court career, to be honest.”
Federer is competing in the Indian Wells Masters this week.