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Swiss tennis legend Roger Federer is making a comeback on the court after a 13-month long absence from the sport due to two right knee surgeries. He's back to playing competitive tennis in the Qatar Open this week.
Via Jason Gay of The Wall Street Journal:
“I feel like there’s still something left,” the 39-year-old Roger Federer said.
Despite the layoff, Federer admitted he still put an effort to be up to date with the competition as he watched countless tennis matches and highlight clips:
“I watched quite a lot, actually,” he said. “I’m not just spending hours and hours in front of the TV watching all the matches, but a lot of highlights, and making sure I stay up to speed…I want to know what’s going on.”
Though overcoming a major injury would be hard at this stage of his career, Roger Federer was never really expecting retirement:
“Retirement was never really on the cards,” he said. “If the knee keeps bothering me for months and months to come, then we have to look at it. That’s normal, because when you realize that you can’t play at the top level anymore, and the knee doesn’t allow you to do that, then you have to have that conversation. But this is not the time to think about that.”
Prior to this return, 39-year-old star last saw action against top-ranked Novak Djokovic in the semifinals of the Australian Open back in January 2020, a match in which he suffered a straight-set defeat. While Federer was away, Djokovic continued to grab more hardware as he also emerged victorious in this year's Australian Open held last month.
Meanwhile, Federer's other rival in Rafael Nadal already tied him for the most career Grand Slams in history with 20 by notching his 13th Roland Garros victory.
Roger Federer is set to face either Frenchman Jeremy Chardy or British tennis player Daniel Evans. He is hoping that an impressive showing in the tournament will give him momentum as he is eyeing to compete in the upcoming Wimbledon event and possibly in the Tokyo Olympics as well.
