'Will Roger Federer still have that renewed motivation?', says ATP legend

It is that moment of the year that sportsmen and fans alike look forward to, as the tennis season draws to a close and what remains is to retrace the highlights and frame the protagonists who have most distinguished themselves. Official recognition comes with the ATP Awards, prizes that are awarded annually to tennis players for various reasons. For the first time since 2002, Roger Federer is not among the nominees for the Stefan Edberg Sportmanship Award, which he has won 13 times. From 2004 to 2019, only Rafael Nadal on three occasions replaced the Swiss in winning this category of ATP awards. Meanwhile, Henri Leconte recently spoke about how Roger Federer could possibly suffer from lack of motivation when he returns. The Frenchman admitted, however, that he is hoping for Federer to win another Slam.

Leconte on Roger Federer's future

“We want to believe it (Federer to win another Slam), we all want to believe it,” Leconte said. “It’s been a long and difficult year. Will the motivation still be there? Will this break, the fact of having been able to enjoy (with) his family, have changed something or will he still have that renewed motivation that has always fascinated us?” Henri Leconte believes the rapidly-improving younger stars will make things tricky for Roger Federer, but he still has hope in the Swiss' ability to pull off the impossible. "We all wish him, we would like him to stop on a Grand Slam title but the train (momentum) is gone with this younger generation which has put in an extra speed," Leconte continued. "I would like to believe it, Roger has done so many things, that’s why he makes us dream, we would like to see him at the top." When recalling Federer’s injury spells, the 2016 knee injury comes to mind. The Swiss master suffered a knee injury after bowing out of the 2016 Wimbledon semifinal. He then had his knee surgery and later made a come back in 2017. 2017 was a special year as he won the Australian Open and Wimbledon. Now coming to the present, Federer reached the 2020 Australian Open semifinal but was comfortably defeated by Novak Djokovic. Then the coronavirus pandemic caused a tennis outage and Federer announced the surprising news of two knee surgeries and that ended his 2020 season. Now things are falling into place like it did in 2017, and that is why his 2021 comeback is very much awaited. Now coming to the present, Federer reached the 2020 Australian Open semifinal but was comfortably defeated by Novak Djokovic. Then the coronavirus pandemic caused a tennis outage and Federer announced the surprising news of two knee surgeries and that ended his 2020 season. Now things are falling into place like it did in 2017, and that is why his 2021 comeback is very much awaited.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3oq02AK