Olympic gold lures Federer to Tokyo Games

PARIS: Roger Federer announced Monday he will compete at next year’s Tokyo Olympics in a bid to claim the men’s singles gold medal, the only major prize he has yet to win.

“I’ve been debating with my team for a few weeks now, months actually, what I should do in the summer time (of 2020) after Wimbledon and before the US Open,” he said at a promotional event. “At the end of the day my heart decided to play the Olympic Games again.”

Federer has won all four of the Grand Slam tournaments, as well as the ATP Tour Finals six times, but is still waiting to grab Olympic singles gold.

The 20-time Grand Slam champion did win a doubles gold alongside fellow Swiss Stan Wawrinka at Beijing in 2008, but when he got to the London singles final in 2012 he was hammered 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 by an inspired Andy Murray.

Federer did not compete at Rio 2016, where Murray won again, but has since twice won the Australian Open and took the 2017 Wimbledon title before losing an epic final in the grass-court Grand Slam to Novak Djokovic earlier this year.

Serbia’s Djokovic, and Federer’s eternal rival Rafael Nadal, have both already said they will compete at Tokyo, the trio setting the scene for a highly competitive tournament.

TRIO GOING STRONG Nobody will be writing the ageing triumvirate off.

The 32-year-old Djokovic is world number one and the player poised to take top spot off him in the coming weeks is Nadal, 33.

The 38-year-old Federer is third in the world rankings, while Nadal and Djokovic won all four Grand Slams between them this year.

The two-time defending Olympic champion and threetime Grand Slam winner Murray, coming back from his January hip surgery, is yet to announce his intentions for Tokyo. MUMBAI: Leander Paes is a man with many hats, and he loves donning each one of them. When he is not busy striking winners in the doubles circuit, the 46-year-old finds time to guide and fine-tune the skills of younger players on the ATP Tour, be it India’s Ramkumar Ramanathan or Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas.

The 18-time Grand Slam champion is also the co-owner of Mumbai Leon Army, a franchise in the Tennis Premier League, which is an eight-team event featuring Indian players that will be held here in December. In the city on Sunday to pick his side at the auctions, the tennis legend spoke to Hindustan Times about how he has been playing just for himself lately and why he saw Sumit Nagal’s breakthrough season coming. Excerpts:

You’ve been juggling between playing on the Tour as well as mentoring young talent. How much are you enjoying it?

I’m loving it. I think the uniqueness of the family I grew up in—a mother who was the captain of the basketball team, a father who is a sports medicine doctor and was an Olympic hockey champion, while I play tennis—is that we stand for fitness, health and achievement. Helping out the young boys and girls comes naturally to me, whether it’s in the Davis Cup or on the Tour.

You’re still playing and also helping youngsters do the same on the Tour. How much does the latter help you keep you going at this age?

The last few years on the Tour have been more enjoyable because I’ve been playing for myself. I’m playing because I love and am very passionate about my tennis. When I first started out, it was about putting bread and butter on the table. You’ve got to earn your next flight ticket, your hotel room, your next coaching fees. But after I started winning a little, my ambitions changed: let’s win an Olympic medal, then let’s win one Grand Slam, then win a second and a third. And then, once you complete a career Grand Slam in doubles, career Grand Slam in mixed doubles, win an Olympic medal in singles, you can finally sit back and say, ‘I can now play for myself’. I can now play because I love pushing my mind and body at 46 to keep being the best I can be. That’s the fun part, really.

So you mean it’s easier to motivate yourself now than before because you’re enjoying it more?

Well, it’s harder, actually. At 46, to take on someone who is 20 or 30 years old, it’s challenging. Because the volume of effort it takes now to get the same results has changed. Before, I could put in four-hour days and get the results. In my 30s, if I put in sixhour days, I’d get my results. Today, I have to put in 12-hour days. It’s about changing your whole lifestyle; you can’t just go and eat whatever you want. Having Bengali roots, I just can’t go and enjoy a dish of gulab jamoons or rosogollas or mishtis. My training regime, my rehab, my recovery takes a lot more time now. I’m lucky that I have the knowledge of 30 years and a father who has done it for 50 years. So, I know what has to be done and how, but it takes a lot of time and effort.

Is 2020 Tokyo Olympics one of them?

That’s what I’m working on right