Roger Federer: 'I would like to play with the legends of the game'

Swiss tennis player Roger Federer continues to give interviews to analyze how his recovery process is going. The former world number one confirmed that he was training hard to be able to return to the circuit next January, especially for the Australian Open 2021, where the Swiss will try to confirm the success of 2017, when he managed to win the tournament upon returning after a long break. Roger Federer said he is ‘definitely’ not retiring any time soon as he targets a return to tennis in 2021.

Federer on his return

“I’m definitely not retiring now,” Roger Federer said. “I trained last week, I should be on the court at the beginning of January. I am still fighting for my return, I want to be on the court, I would like to play with the legends of the game, with the best players. I feel that there is little left in me. I am doing well, it is a long process – not daily, but weekly.” Despite Federer’s desire to return, he also admitted he has really enjoyed the downtime he has had this year. “I enjoy Switzerland, the last time I was at home for more than six weeks was when I was 16. It is more relaxed, not only for me, but also for my children. I can sometimes fall asleep because I go to bed late, [but] there is no stress that matches bring.” His fans will no doubt be hoping for a repeat performance, but while you learn never to write off the player widely acknowledged as the greatest in history, to win another Grand Slam title would surely amount to the mother of all comebacks. Provided he is fit you can be pretty sure that Federer will be competitive again, but whether he can hold off the combined forces of his great rivals Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic and a pack of hungry young pretenders is another matter. Instead it seems likely that 2021 will amount to a farewell tour. At one stage it had seemed that Federer had earmarked 2020 for his departure: his original intention to play at Roland Garros and his commitment to play at the Olympics in Tokyo felt like part of a plan for a last appearance on the sport’s greatest stages. The knee surgery then ripped out one of the key dates from his schedule, while the postponement of the Olympics until 2021 because of the world health crisis ruled out another part of the plan.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3jMN4KQ