ATP Miami: Roger Federer does not defend his title
Roger Federer will not start at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Miami in 2021.
by Nikolaus Fink
last edit: Mar 01, 2021, 07:12 pm
At the end of last week, the organizers of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Miami had speculated that all top players would participate, now tournament director James Blake and Co. had to accept the first bitter rejection: According to information from journalist Musy Isabelle, Roger Federer will be in Florida does not start.
The reason for the cancellation is not yet known, however, Federer's fitness coach Pierre Paganini had stated in a recent interview that his protégé would put in another building block in April. Because the season highlights of the Swiss (Wimbledon, Olympia and US Open) would only be on the program in the second half of the year.
Federer would have started as defending champion in Miami after the corona-related cancellation of the previous year. The 39-year-old has already triumphed four times in Florida, most recently in 2019 with a final victory over John Isner. Should the ATP return to its old ranking system on March 22nd, as currently planned, the Swiss would lose the 1000 points of this tournament victory.
Despite the cancellation of the event in Miami, Federer still wants to return to the ATP tour in the coming week: From March 8, the long-time world number one will play for the title at the ATP 250 tournament in Doha, before the week after that ATP 500 event in Dubai is on the program .