Roger Federer's Keys to Victory at 2013 French Open

While Rafael Nadal is the favorite heading into the 2013 French Open, which begins on Sunday, May 26, Roger Federer is still one of the top competitors in the field.

In the past seven years, the Swiss player only has one championship in four finals appearances at Roland Garros. He has failed to reach the French Open semifinals only once since 2005.

Federer has proven throughout his career that he can succeed on any surface and has recently shown that he has enough gas in the tank to still be a threat to win any event.

However, his play is still far from perfect and Federer will need to follow these keys to victory in order to win a title at this Grand Slam event.

Get First Serve in Play

At the Rome Masters, Federer struggled mightily against Raael Nadal and lost, 6-1, 6-3. However, much of that had nothing to do with his opponent.

While the veteran had no double faults, he was only able to get 56 percent of his first serves in play. As a result, Nadal was able to get strong returns on the weaker second serve and it led to plenty of breaks.

During the year, Federer has a 21 percent difference between success on his first serve and his second serve. He cannot let that become an issue on the clay in Paris. 

If he can get close to two-thirds of his first serves in play, he will win a lot more points.

Be Aggressive

If there is one thing that Federer does not want to do, it is get into long matches. That will especially be true in the earlier rounds of the French Open.

The 31-year-old player has had to take some time off from the tour just to rest up for the bigger events. He certainly does not have the fitness to be involved in too many five-set matches.

What he must do is be more aggressive with his shots to try to get winners instead of hoping for mistakes by his opponent. The longer the rallies, the worse off he will be down the road.

Federer needs to go to the net when there is an opportunity and do everything he can to make each set as short as possible.

Hope Someone Else Beats Nadal

It is never great going into a tournament with little hope of winning, especially a Grand Slam, but pretty much everyone in this field besides Nadal is shooting for second.

The Spanish star has won seven of eight championships at Roland Garros, and has only lost once in 53 career matches there. It is the reason why he is the "King of Clay."

Nadal has also proven that his knee injury is behind him by winning his last three tournaments.

As good as Federer played during the most recent tournament, his loss to Nadal was not a fluke. He was only able to win four games because he simply cannot keep up on a clay court.

The best chance that Federer has of winning the French Open is to hope that someone else matches up better against Nadal (David Ferrer?) and knocks him out early. Otherwise, a finals appearance will be the best that Federer can hope for in Paris. 

Note: All stats courtesy of ATPWorldTour.com.

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