Federer’s return still in the air
It’s been a tough year and a half for one of tennis’ greatest champions Roger Federer who hasn’t confirmed if he will be back for the US Open after another injury set-back.
The Swiss maestro took an extended break from the game to undergo knee surgery that resulted in follow-up surgery which has hampered his full-time return to tour and threatens to derail an already disrupted year of competition.
With just 13 competitive matches under his belt in 2021 Federer couldn’t confirm whether he will be at Flushing Meadow on 30 August.
"I'm fine. I was on holiday. I haven't done anything for a while because of my knee. I had to stop everything after Wimbledon," he told Blick newspaper via AFP.
"This week, I must meet my doctors and my team, and then we will see what happens next. For now, everything is still a bit uncertain."
The 40-year-old hasn’t played since his quarter-final defeat at Wimbledon, which many fans thought might be his last, and after withdrawing from the Olympic Games as well as both North American ATP tournaments he’s running out of competition time to be fit for New York.
"It was different before. The questions were simple: what is my place in the ranking? What will my next tournament be?", he said.
"Today, it's more difficult: how do I feel when I start training again? What are my goals? How to reconcile all this with the family? What does the rest of the team say?
"I am much more enthusiastic than before; the attitude is different. It's really completely different from 10 years ago.”
His 40th birthday was a quiet affair with his family and joked about what he expected when he ticked over into the 4th decade of his life.
"I woke up in the morning when I was 40 and realised that everything was still the same as the day before. I was relieved," he said light-heartedly.
"I just turned 40 and am still active. Who would have believed it? Surely not me. I'm totally in tune with myself and I'm sure there is still a lot of great things to come."
Federer has twenty grand slam titles to his name which has been equalled by his two greatest rivals Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal this year and Djokovic still has his eyes on the year grand slam with just the US Open title left for him to win.
It might be slightly more difficult for the Serbian star who was dumped out of the Olympic Games in the semi-final by eventual gold medal winner Alexander Zverev. He was then beaten to the bronze medal by Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta.
