Roger Federer never seriously contemplated retirement while he was away from the tennis tour for more than a year. He did have a hard time dealing with the need for a repeat operation on his bad right knee, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I was down. Obviously I couldn’t believe I had to do a second one,” Federer said Sunday ahead of his appearance at the Qatar Open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This is definitely a moment where you maybe question a little bit more.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 39-year-old Federer’s first match since the 2020 Australian Open will come Wednesday in Doha against Dan Evans or Jeremy Chardy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Federer’s first procedure on his right knee occurred in February 2020. That knee kept swelling up after bike rides or walks with his four children; he announced in June that he had had a second surgery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 20-time Grand Slam champion will monitor how this comeback goes over the next several months and then assess things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I know it’s more on the rare side for almost a 40-year-old to come back after almost a year being out. And I was surprised how long it took. But I took a decision quite early with the team that I wanted to take the time, no rush, to get back onto the tour,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Important is that I’m injury-free, pain-free, and I can actually enjoy myself out there on tour. So we’ll see how it goes now. I’m curious myself to find out.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What seemed clear from Federer’s session with reporters on Sunday: Wimbledon is what matters the most to him at this point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He has won a men’s-record eight titles at the All England Club and came oh-so-close to a ninth in the 2019 final there, holding two championship points before eventually losing to Novak Djokovic in a fifth-set tiebreaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wimbledon was canceled last year for the first time since 1945 because of the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is scheduled to be played June 28 to July 11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I know I need to go back to training after here again,” said Federer, who pulled out of the Miami Open later this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“So from this standpoint, it’s still a building up to being stronger, better, fitter, faster and all that stuff. I hope, then, by Wimbledon, I’m going to be 100%, and from then on, then the season really starts for me. Everything until then, it’s just ‘Let’s see how it goes.'”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He is curious what travel and tournament life will be like during a pandemic “bubble life, quarantines all around, the whole mask situation” and, most of all, how his repaired knee handles competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“That’s really the only concern I have: Is the knee going to hold up? As of now, I’m not sure,” Federer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I did everything I possibly could.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Roger Federer never seriously contemplated retirement while he was away from the tennis tour for more than a year. He did have a hard time dealing with the need for a repeat operation on his bad right knee, though. “I was down. Obviously I couldn’t believe I had to do a second one,” Federer said Sunday ahead of his appearance at the Qatar Open. “This is definitely a moment where you maybe question a little bit more.” The 39-year-old Federer’s first match since the 2020 Australian Open will come Wednesday…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29670,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29669"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29669"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29672,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29669\/revisions\/29672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}