Federer: “I hope to play in Australia”

Swiss tennis player Roger Federer, Who spent most of this season off the slopes with a knee injury and underwent two arthroscopies to resolve it, has indicated he might return to competition in Australian OpenWhich will take place from February 8 to 21.

In an interview with your country magazine Schweitzer IllustratorThe Basel champions reviewed the challenging 2020 season and left that possibility open, although his environment indicates that he will only do so if he appears perfectly fit to compete at the highest level.

“I haven’t fully tested my knee performance on the field, but I hope to be able to play in Australia.”Federer, who also said he will spend Christmas in Dubai, and that he is already making preparations to fly to Melbourne later, said because the climate in the UAE is better to start training with his surgery knee.

Director of the Australian Open Craig TillyIt was also recently announced that Federer had promised to be “with the best” in Melbourne, which is a month behind schedule due to the pandemic.

Australia is the last tournament Federer will play in, as in the version earlier this year, after losing in the semi-finals to Novak Djokovic, he underwent arthroscopic surgery in his right knee that kept him off the track throughout 2020, and then to another later, after checking The results were not as expected.

Despite this, the player from Basel is still fifth in the ATP ranking this year, with Djokovic first and Spain’s Rafael Nadal second.

In the interview, the 39-year-old compared his current situation to that of 2016, another year in which he was also knocked out of the competition due to injury, although he has already shown that he can fully recover and continue to win afterwards.

He also mentioned his friend and rival Rafa Nadal: “I talked to him a lot during this break. We are on the Players Council and we are wondering what is best for this sport or how can we move forward.”And he pointed out the impact of the Corona virus also on the tennis world.