The 2020 tennis year of ... Roger Federer
It wasn't much what Roger Federer offered in tennis in 2020. But it was still enough for at least one classic.
by tennisnet.com
last edit: Dec 23, 2020, 09:14 am
If six matches are enough for fifth place in the annual ranking of the ATP charts, then it must have been a very special season. And so, between his opening win against Steve Johnson at the Australian Open and his elimination in the semifinals against Novak Djokovic , Roger Federer made a rather laborious contribution to tennis in 2020.
Anyone who would have thought that the elimination against John Millman at the US Open 2018 was a one-time slip-up, saw themselves in Melbourne wrong. Millman also tortured Federer at home, only to lose in the tie-break of the fifth set. Federer even had to fend off eight match points against Tennys Sandgren in the quarter-finals - the performance in between against Marton Fucsovics was also not convincing.
Federer with a focus on Wimbledon and Olympia
Then Federer played in South Africa with Rafael Nadal for a good cause. And said goodbye to the professional tennis circus until further notice. First one, then another knee operation early on raised slight doubts about the 39-year-old's return to top form. Federer recently did nothing to reassure his fans when he announced at an honor in Switzerland that the whole story of the Australian Open might come too early.
The priorities of the 20-time major winner in the coming year are clearly in the middle of the year: First at Wimbledon, where Federer just missed the title in 2019. And then at the US Open and the Olympic Games in Tokyo. So these actually come to play.