Kryptic Roger Federer - is retirement coming?
Roger Federer lost a few words about his future when he was honored in Switzerland. And left plenty of room for interpretation.
by tennisnet.com
last edit: Dec 14, 2020, 07:16 pm
"If that's what it was for me, who knows, then this is an incredible ending for me at these Sports Awards." With this sentence Roger Federer received an award from Swiss television (he was named the best athlete in the last 70 years). And many fans, not only in his home country, worried. What does the maestro mean by this? That he does not believe that the game will resume soon? That he saves himself the hard trip to Australia? Or, briefly in shock at the Federisti, maybe withdrawing completely into private life?
However, Federer immediately backed down again by assuring: "It will continue". In Melbourne, however, only under the condition that the start of the first major in 2021 is really postponed to February 8th. "That would help me, because then I would have a little more time." So far, he has mainly worked on his physical condition, he will only start tennis-specific training in these days, according to Federer.
Federer last played against Djokovic in Melbourne
It is difficult to estimate what the chances of success are in the coming year. The last competition match was played by Roger Federer eleven months ago in Melbourne, after two combative masterpieces against John Millman and Tennys Sandgren, the 39-year-old was now 39 years old in the semifinals against Novak Djokovic . Afterwards Federer played an exhibition match against Rafael Nadal in South Africa, but canceled his participation in the ATP Tour 500 tournament in Dubai. After two operations on the knee, the Basel bidder ended his season prematurely.
The return to the tour will not be quite as difficult for Federer on paper as it was at the beginning of 2017. At that time, the maestro came back from a six-month break and started in 17th place in the Australian Open. And won this. This time, the seeding list would show Federer in fifth place, as the Swiss will still receive the points from the tournaments from 2019.