'If Federer doesn’t feel like he’s capable of making a deep run...', says ATP legend

Novak Djokovic has never hidden: his two biggest goals are to become the player with the most weeks spent as world number one and the tennis player with the most Grand Slam titles in his career. Either way, his two main rivals are Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. There are precisely 23 weeks left for the Serbian to break the record of weeks at the top of the world rankings held by Federer. In the fight for the Grand Slam primacy, however, the situation becomes more delicate, because the Swiss and the Spaniard have won 20 and 19 Majors respectively, while Djokovic is still at 17. In a recent interview, John McEnroe has delivered his verdict on Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray.

McEnroe on Roger Federer's future

"Presumably down in Australia, I guess that’s where Roger Federer is probably going to come back, the courts suit him pretty well. I’m sure if he doesn’t feel like he’s capable of making a deep run, he’s not going to play, he’s no reason to, so I would presume he is going to be coming back at a high level but it’s just hard to imagine at 39 you could be as close to what you were, that would be extremely difficult to do" - John McEnroe said. After missing the second half of the 2016 ATP Tour season to recover from left arthroscopic knee surgery, Federer made his return to the sport at the 2017 Australian Open as the No. 17 player in the FedEx ATP Rankings. With lowered expectations, the 35-year-old beat Top 5 players Kei Nishikori and Stan Wawrinka in five-set matches to book a final meeting against great rival Nadal. McEnroe also talked about Andy Murray's future: “I think his goal is to feel like he’s healthy and he can test himself. He proved at the US Open that he could go and play for a long time, he played four hours to beat Nishioka in the first round but then it looked like he was a bit spent. I don't know whether it was physical or emotional. He is about 80% of what he was moving, the question is at the moment is that 20% going to come back? Is he going to be able to dig into the corners, is he going to be able to break out of the corners as quickly as he used to? Maybe that takes time, maybe it takes six months? I’m not a doctor but if he stays at 80%, I don't think you’ll see him play that much longer. But if he is in a process where the body is getting used to what it takes to go the distance, then I would think he could get back to the top ten.”

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3cCOJR6