Cutting Euroclay circuit could cost Roger Federer

— -- Roger Federer never attended college, but he's planning the mother of all spring breaks in 2016, a de facto offseason that will be well over a month longer than the year-end one he's taking now.

It's a breathtakingly bold move by Federer, the men's all-time leader in Grand Slam singles titles, seemingly designed to best spare -- and prepare -- him for the challenge of the Olympic Games in Rio. Federer has yet to plug the one outstanding hole in his résumé with a singles gold medal, despite having taken part in four editions of the Olympics. He did, however, take silver in London, losing to Andy Murray, and he partnered with Stan Wawrinka to earn doubles gold in Beijing.

The tennis portion of the Olympic competition begins Aug. 8 on hard courts comparable to the surface used at the summer North American Masters 1000 events. That helps explain why Federer decided to cut the spring Euroclay circuit entirely off his schedule.

By the time Rio rolls around, Federer's spring break will be long forgotten. He'll have logged two Grand Slams in the French Open and Wimbledon, plus the Toronto Masters 1000, the major rehearsal for Rio.

That's where the risk factor comes into play.

Rankings for a veteran such as Federer are critical because they create the seedings. And one of Federer's major goals for the Rio Games must be to keep his ranking high enough to keep his fellow Big Four members at arm's length in the draw.

Federer is presently No. 3, but No. 4 Wawrinka and No. 5 Rafael Nadal are real threats to his position in 2016. Tomas Berdych is always in the mix, as are Kei Nishikori, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, David Ferrer, Milos Raonic, Marin Cilic and even Richard Gasquet.

Federer's spring hiatus will begin whenever he finishes at the Indian Wells Masters, which starts March 7, and it will end with the start of the French Open on May 22. It will be bought partly at the expense of the Miami Masters, which Federer is skipping again, and the entire clay-court season leading up to Roland Garros. That stretch includes a whopping three Masters events: Monte Carlo, Madrid and Rome.

By eliminating the spring clay events, however, Federer has room to add two events, Rotterdam (indoor hard) and Stuttgart (grass). Both tournaments will give Federer an opportunity to add ranking points to replace the ones he will automatically lose when he fails to defend them in places such as Rome and Monte Carlo.

In all, Federer will play 16 events in 2016: a dozen on hard courts, three on grass and just Roland Garros on clay.

Because of his age, record and history of service, Federer is not bound by the same rules as most of his ATP peers. He can skip Masters 1000 events that are mandatory for almost everyone else without incurring punishment that might affect his ranking. However, while Federer has his feet up, he will also be seeing the rankings points he gained during each week in 2015 melt away, and he'll be unable to replace or even add to them.

Whatever else happens, Federer will be losing 950 points when he skips the Euroclay season. That's nearly the amount awarded to the winner of a Masters 1000. Worse yet, he doesn't have an enormous amount to gain and salt away for insurance early in the year; he's defending winner's points in Brisbane and Dubai, where he beat Novak Djokovic this past year, and finalist's points at Indian Wells.

Federer was upset in the third round of the Australian Open in 2015, so he can add a significant number of points by going a few more rounds in Melbourne. He's also playing Rotterdam for the first time, which means all the points there will be gravy.

If Federer has a strong start in 2016, he is likely to be in good shape rankingswise after his long break. But if he loses a lot of ground, he'll go into Roland Garros and Wimbledon feeling a lot of pressure to repeat his respective quarterfinal and runner-up performances. The addition of Stuttgart also will give him a chance to pick up points on his best grass surface, but Stuttgart is just an ATP 250.

The message in Federer's schedule for 2016 is clear: It's all about the Olympics. This man has no desire to depose the King of Clay. In fact, he doesn't even want to live in that kingdom.