Roger Federer has only played 19 matches since the beginning of 2020, struggling with a knee injury and underwent three operations. Roger had a great run in 2019, finishing third behind Nadal and Djokovic and preparing for another strong season with the 2020 Australian Open semi-finals.
As it turned out, this was Roger’s last tournament for the next 13 months, he sustained a knee injury and had surgery in February and May. Federer returned to the practice field last October and was ready to play again in Doha this March.
The veteran took part in five tournaments in 2021, won nine of 13 games and made it to the Wimbledon quarter-finals as the oldest player in the Open era. Roger suffered a massive loss to Hubert Hurkacz and underwent a third knee surgery that ended his season.
Federer starts rehabilitation again at 40 and wants to compete sometime in 2022 and fight for the trophies. Still, the return will almost certainly come after the first major of the season in Melbourne, and Roger’s manager Ivan Ljubicic confirmed that in a recent interview.
Roger is not rushing his comeback path and the Australian Open comes too early to play without risking another injury. So the Swiss should miss the Australian Open for the second year in a row, and we still remember his incredible run in January 2019.
Federer prevailed against John Millman in the fifth set match tie-break, trailing 8-4 before taking the final six points to cross the finish line first. Roger fended off seven match points in a thriller against Tennys Sandgren and survived for a few days before losing 7-6, 6-4, 6-3 in two hours and 18 minutes to Novak Djokovic in the semifinals.
Roger Federer will likely skip the next Australian Open
It was the 50th ATP Tour match between two big rivals and Novak scored the 27th triumph over Roger. The Swiss star suffered a groin injury two days earlier in this epic match with Sandgren and did his best to be on par with a powerful opponent, making more winners than Novak but not taking at least one set.
Roger started the action with a 4-1, 40-0 lead and had a great chance of breaking Novak’s serve three times in a row before the Serb survived and gained momentum in that game. Djokovic made up for the deficit and took the first set in the tie-break to get a boost.
Novak lost 12 points on serve in sets two and three combined, never had a breakpoint and challenged Roger to repeat this in order to stay in the competition, something the Swiss could not achieve on any given day.
“I think Roger’s chances of playing in Melbourne are very slim. He’s still recovering and knowing him he wants to be sure that he can play to win the tournament and be at 100%. Me think the Australian Open are not a real possibility right now.
But he will take it step by step because he is 40 and needs to be patient. He can’t recover as quickly as he used to, “said Ivan Ljubicic.
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