20-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer is probably one of the few players in the sport thankful that the Tour has been temporarily halted.
The world No.4 hasn’t played a competitive match since his semifinal loss to Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open back in January. It was shortly after that loss when the Swiss maestro confirmed that he would be undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his knee for the second time in his career. A minimally invasive procedure on a joint in which an examination and sometimes treatment of damage is conducted.
With COVID-19 bringing everything to a standstill, Federer is yet to test out his body post-surgery. However, one of his coaches has admitted that the initial recovery period didn’t go as planned for the 38-year-old. Severin Luthi, who has been a member of Federer’s team for more than a decade, said the healing process has taken longer than expected without elaborating further as to why this has been the case.
“Roger Federer did not recover as fast as we expected…There were two weeks where his progress was slower, it was a little complicated, but now everything has accelerated,” Luthi told SRF TV.
Luthi’s comments mirror what Federer had previously said during an Instagram Live chat with fellow rival Rafael Nadal back in April. At the time the former world No.1 said his recovery started to slow six weeks into his rehabilitation. Federer had also previously undergone knee surgery back in 2016 to treat a torn meniscus.
“I had a really good first six weeks and then it (the recovery) was getting a bit slower,” he explained. “Now it is getting better again but I have plenty of time so there is no stress or rush.”
As tennis officials look at when to restart the Tour, it is unclear as to what Federer’s plans will be for the rest of the season with there potentially being two more grand slams to play at the US Open and French Open. During a video chat with former player Gustavo Kuerten last month he said that he was not training because he ‘didn’t see a reason to’ at the time due to the Tour suspension. Federer has also previously voiced concerns about the possibility of playing at the US Open behind closed doors. Saying he would find is ‘difficult’ to play without fans.
Despite the uncertainty, Luthi is hoping to be back on the Tour at some point before the year concludes. It is believed that player’s will have a better idea about what the remaining 2020 calendar will look like within the next seven days. On Wednesday the ATP will host a zoom call with its players to discuss their plans.
“I believe that we can see some action again from that month (September),” he said. “We are hoping for that.”
Federer has won 103 ATP titles and spent a total of 310 weeks as world No.1 so far in his career.
