Seven-time Grand Slam champion Mats Wilander spoke about Roger Federer’s future goals in an interview to Kickserveradio. The Swede believes that the Laver Cup is the biggest motivating factor for Federer to continue playing on the ATP Tour.
The 56-year-old Swede said that he has never seen Federer enjoying himself while playing a team event as much as he does at the Laver Cup.
Federer led Team Europe to Laver Cup win over Team World in the past edition of this event. Team World took the edge after the first two matches on the final day. Federer beat John Isner in two close sets to close the gap keeping Team Europe hopes alive. Alexander Zverev edged Milos Raonic in the match tie-break to seal the win for Team Europe for the second consecutive year.
The Swiss legend has played eleven Laver Cup matches so far and won all six singles matches and two of his five doubles matches. He shared the court with Novak Djokovic and Rafeal Nadal in doubles matches.
“The Laver Cup to me is what really driving Roger Federer. I have never seen him that excited in any team event, certainly not in Davis Cup as he was in Laver Cup”, said Wilander.
According to Wilander, Federer enjoys the shorter format of the Laver Cup matches.
“Roger knows he can play the Laver Cup for four or five more years. It’s only two sets, champions tie-breaker if it’s one set all. He can still play doubles matches. Obviously he is part of the ownership of the tournament so I think he needs to stay match fit because the way because the way he behaves during Laver Cup, I don’t think he wants to let go of that”, said Wilander.
Federer is still aiming to win the elusive Olympic singles gold medal. He won the doubles team gold medal in Beijing 2008 with Stan Wawrinka and the singles silver medal in London 2021 losing to Andy Murray. Wilander thinks that Federer can beat the top-ranked players in best-of-three matches.
“I think that his major goals are Laver Cup and the Olympics. Of course, we must not forget the Olympic Games, he has never won the gold medal in singles. I would always say that in the last three or four years that I think Tokyo 2020 was gonna be towards the end of his career. Now, obviously Tokyo is hopefully next year, but I think he can still win that. He can still win a two out of three sets against the best of the world at the Olympics”.
