Swiss tennis star Roger Federer says it will be a combination of things which will aid his decision to retire from professional tennis but he currently has no plans to do so.
The 39-year-old missed most of the Tour last season due to a right knee injury which required two surgical procedures. The second was done after the first failed to produce the desired results. Since then, Federer has only played in one tournament which was at the Qatar Open in Doha where he reached the semi-finals. More recently he has decided to skip a series of tournaments in order to focus on training.
Describing the sport as his ‘second family,’ 20-time Grand Slam champion Federer says he wants to give life on the Tour another try following his injury setback. He will return to action at the upcoming Geneva Open in what will be his first clay court event in almost two years.
“I am passionate about this life, which is a bit like my second family, and tennis always amuses me as much,” he said during an interview with Léman Bleu.
“It would be hard to give up without trying one more time to see what level I can reach. But it’s my knee, the stress, the demands and the family that will decide.”
Federer has won 103 ATP titles so far in his career which is the second-highest in history after Jimmy Connors. He has achieved numerous accolades but there is one that is missing – the Olympic singles title. The nearest the Swiss has come to the gold medal was in 2012 when he finished runner-up to Andy Murray. Although he did win gold in the men’s doubles back in 2008 alongside Stan Wawrinka.
There are still concerns over the status of this year’s Tokyo Games amid the COVID-19 pandemic and a surge of cases in Japan. Tokyo is among nine prefectures of the country which have been placed under a state of emergency until at least May 31st. On top of that, an online petition calling for the event to be scrapped have been signed by more than 350,000 people.
“If you feel that there is a lot of resistance, it might be better not to go ,” Federer commented on the petition. “There is a lot of people there who are not vaccinated and who are against holding these Games and I am not sure what to think. If that (the Games) doesn’t happen because of the situation, I would be the first to understand.”
Federer has called for clarification from organisers over the future of the Games and if they will for certain go ahead. Other players such as Naomi Osaka and Kei Nishikori have also expressed their concerns. Meanwhile, Serena Williams is undecided if she will go due to rules prohibiting international athletes from beginning family members.
Prior to the Olympics, Federer’s focus is on the clay. As the top seed in Geneva he has a bye in the first round. His first match is set to be against either Pablo Andujar or Jordan Thompson.
