'After Roger Federer won the Australian Open 2017...', says writer

“I hate destroying the narrative. But Roger Federer would surely have played the Australian Open if he had been able to compete at the level he would have wanted. With these words Simon Graf, biographer of the Swiss Maestro, casts a shadow over the words spoken a few days ago by André Sa, a former doubles player and today in charge of relations between the Australian Open and the players. According to Sa, in practice, behind Federer's announced forfeit, there are no physical reasons - or at least not only those - but much more. The Brazilian has in fact revealed that Roger himself would have told him that he did not want his wife Mirka and children to spend two weeks in a hotel, nor, alternatively, go to Australia alone and thus separate from the family for about five weeks. A thesis dismantled by Graf - who knows Federer very well - on Twitter. Graf himself then provided updates on the Swiss's recovery, envisaging his possible return for the Dubai Tennis Championships 2021: "I am quite optimistic - he wrote - I think he will play in Dubai in mid-March". Respected Swiss sports journalist and Federer’s biographer Simon Graf has shared his thoughts on the raging debate around the retirement of 20-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer.

Graf on Roger Federer

“I don’t think it’s important where (at which event) he steps away from the game. I did an interview with Roger Federer after he won the Australian Open (in) 2017. I met him up in the mountains in Lenzerheide, where he has his second home. And he said, ‘my career has been so corny, like, everything has been so amazing. I don’t need a corny finish or like, it doesn’t matter how it will happen,” Simon Graf said. However, Graf did concede that Federer isn’t too far away from retirement. “It will happen sometime… Maybe he will announce (that) he will step away from the game in Basel, maybe. I don’t think it’s important for him where he steps away,” the veteran sports journalist added. Speaking at an awards night in his homeland at the end of last year, the Swiss maestro said he was unsure if he would regain full fitness for the Australian Open. He later withdrew from the Major, and this was the first time in his career that he had done so. Godsick, together with Federer, formed a firm called ‘TEAM8’. It is a management firm that has now grown to handle heavyweights such as Alexander Zverev, Juan Martin del Potro, and teenage sensation Coco Gauff.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/39I1mZY