The former world No. 1 Roger Federer withdrew for theOpen d’Australie, which he will miss for the first time in his career as he must continue his recovery after two knee operations, tournament organizers announced on Monday.
Roger Federer, 40 years old on August 8, had ceased all sporting activity since February but had resumed his training recently and was on the list of participants in the Australian Open, which begins on February 8.
Best wishes for a full recovery @rogerfederer https://t.co/TEMiPmU0ZB
— Craig Tiley (@CraigTiley) December 28, 2020
“Finally, Roger did not have time to prepare for the rigors of a Grand Slam and he is very disappointed not to be able to come to Melbourne in 2021”tournament boss Craig Tiley said. “We wish him the best as he prepares for his comeback later in the year and look forward to seeing him in Melbourne in 2022”, he continued.
Moreover, his health concerns had even pushed Federer to consider the end of his career. “Retirement time is approaching and I know I will miss the circuit. It would have been easy to retire now, but I want to give myself a chance to still enjoy tennis ”, declared the Swiss in July in the German press, shortly after undergoing – in full suspension of the circuit because of Covid-19 – a second arthroscopy of the right knee in four months and ended his season.
Not at the level
And by mid-December, he had admitted not being sure to take part in the Australian Open. “It’s a race against time. Of course, it would help if I had a little more time. But it will play out very little ”, he said at an award ceremony in Switzerland. “I would have hoped to be at 100% by October. But I am not at this level even today. It may be very fair ” for the Australian Open, he added.
For Switzerland, the “Priority, it will be summer, with Wimbledon, the Olympics and the US Open”.
In 2020, Federer played only one tournament, in January: the Australian Open, where he was beaten by Djokovic, future winner, in the semi-finals. “I hope I will return to the circuit in 2021. We will see. But if my career had to end there, it would be incredible to end it with this award ”, he let go, once this honorary trophy in hand.
The top 100 veteran, still 5th in the world, holds the majority of his sport’s records. He won everything… except the Olympic gold in singles (he won gold in doubles with Stan Wawrinka in Beijing in 2008 and silver in singles in London in 2012).
But since his record-breaking 20th Grand Slam title in Australia in early 2018, he has only played one major final, in 2019 in his Wimbledon garden, where he had two match points against Novak Djokovic before s ’tilt.
“Sanitary bubble”
The Australian Open was originally scheduled to start on January 18, but tennis organizers and governing bodies have had to postpone tournament dates at the request of Australian authorities to put in place unprecedented health measures to prevent the spread of the disease. Covid-19.
Players will need to arrive in Australia from January 15 to observe a two-week quarantine period in a “Sanitary bubble” secure set-up around Melbourne Park, the tournament site.
They must therefore stay in hotels reserved for them and must not stay outside these establishments more than five hours a day for their training.
Qualifications for this first major tournament of the year will take place for men in Doha and for women in Dubai from January 10 to 13.
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