Roger Federer reveals why he had to stop skiing

Roger Federer will start his 2020 directly at the Australian Open, having decided to skip the first edition of the ATP Cup for family reasons. Last year, a 20-time Slam champion was defeated by Stefanos Tsitsipas in the fourth round. The Swiss will also play an exhibition event with Alexander Zverev in China in late December.

In 2019 Roger won four titles, including Dubai, Miami, Halle and Basel. At the Wimbledon Championships, Federer faced Novak Djokovic in the final, against whom he lost in a five-set thriller lasting four hours and fifty-seven minutes, despite having two championship points on serve in the fifth set. The match also marked the first time a fifth-set tiebreaker was played at 12 games all in the men's singles and was the longest men's final in Wimbledon history.

In a long interview with Tages Anzeiger newspaper, the Swiss Maestro revealed why he had to stop skiing in recent years: “It was 2000. I was almost 20 years old and I went skiing with Marc Rosset. I skied like a madman and jumped about 10 meters. When landing, I almost did not hit seriously with the back. It was then that I realized that my commitment to tennis was not consistent with skiing."

Roger will also compete in the Tokyo Olympics next year, where he hopes to win his first singles gold medal. "I need to train really hard and that will obviously be a goal of mine. Trying to win one of the five big ones, plus the Olympics - six. I would love to take one of those six chances. I know the French Open's always going to be a bit more complicated. And then any title is a great feeling because I know how it feels, even winning the Hopman Cup, Laver Cup, and then, of course, all the other events as well that I won like Dubai, Halle, Miami" - he said.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2Sue4Vo