Federer ends the second event after 13 months after the second performance. He did not use swordfish against Basililas

Roger Federer after the defeat in the semifinals of last year’s Australian Open, he had to undergo right knee surgery and the interrupted season of the coronavirus pandemic, then used it for complete aftercare. In June, he had another surgery and ended the season prematurely.

The 39-year-old Swiss did not manage to recover even at the beginning of 2021, and did not return to the courts until this week at the ATP 250 in Doha. After a break of 405 days, he definitely did not return in optimal form, but he played two three-hundredth matches and, above all, successfully tested his knee.

“I’m not 100 percent yet, it was felt and seen. I also never even thought about winning this tournament, it wasn’t real,” said 2005, 2006 and 2011 champion Federer, who played in Qatar for the first time in nine years. years.

“The most important thing is that I don’t have any health problems, I feel good and I’m on the right track,” added the 20-time Grand Slam champion, who will celebrate his 40th birthday in August.

Yesterday, Federer defeated 7-5 in the third set of the 28th player of the world, Dan Evans, in his first match after two and a half hours of fighting, today, after less than two hours and not using the match ball, he lost 6-3 1-6 5-7 Nikolozi Basilishvilimu.

Federer used only one of the five breakballs in the match, he even offered his opponents ten chances to break, and he was unable to eliminate three of them. Mečbol had 5-4 in the third set, but the opponent helped himself with service. The Georgian then struck with a break and worked out three matchwords: twice he hit the car, but the third time he played the winning backhand.

Although Federer has not played for more than a year, he is a world number six thanks to a change in the world ranking system made by the ATP management in view of last year’s six-month break in the season.

Next week, Federer should start at the ATP in Dubai, where he triumphed for the eighth time the year before. His next program is uncertain, as he has already withdrawn from Miami and has performed in clay in only three tournaments in the past four seasons.

Basilashvili won three matches in a row for the first time since July 2019, when he triumphed in Hamburg. Since then, he has not succeeded at all, last year he even lost 9 matches and 20 sets in a row. This year in Antalya, after 14 months, he won two matches in one tournament, but against paper outsiders he subsequently got into a crisis again and lost 5 matches and 11 sets in a row.

He only cut the black series in Doha now, where he scored the first Top 50 scalp against John Millman since last January, smoothly defeated Malek Jari and today scored his fifth career win over Federer over a Top 10 tennis player and beat Big 4 on the eighth attempt. The Swiss retaliated from the 2016 Australian Open debacle.

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