Federer out until next year
Fed will resume Slam quest next year
ROGER FEDERER has vowed to return to tennis in his 40th year after announcing he will miss the rest of this coronavirus-hit season following further knee surgery.
The Swiss superstar, who turns 39 in August, revealed he suffered a setback in his recovery from an operation in February and needed to go under the knife again.
And the 20-time Grand Slam champion will now rest his right knee during the tennis shutdown with the aim of making another comeback next year.
He missed the final six months of the 2016 season – including the Olympics and the US Open – after two previous knee operations before returning to win the 2017 Australian Open at the age of 35. He also won Wimbledon that year and defended his Melbourne title in 2018 to bring his tally to 20 Grand Slams.
Federer will now attempt to repeat the trick in 2021 – and further defy Father Time – as he enters his fourth decade.
“Now, much like I did leading up to the 2017 season, I plan to take the necessary time to be 100 per cent ready to play at my highest level,” he wrote on Twitter. “I will be missing my fans and the tour dearly but I will look forward to seeing everyone back on tour at the start of the 2021 season.” Federer’s rivals in the battle to be seen as the sport’s greatest male player have started to close the gap on him, however.
Rafa Nadal is on 19 Grand Slam titles and Novak Djokovic on 17. With Wimbledon cancelled, this injury lay-off will deny Federer the chance to add to his tally this year but his latest surgery could extend his remarkable career even further.
He has not played since losing to Djokovic in the Australian Open semis in January. “A few weeks ago, having experienced a setback during my initial rehabilitation, I had to have an arthroscopic procedure on my right knee,” he said. Federer’s retirement has been predicted for years but he still enjoys competing – and winning – and often travels with his family to tournaments by private jet.
His earning power is not diminishing. Forbes recently named him as the world’s highest earning sportsman – ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo and Tiger Woods – with commercial deals banking him £81m every year. In 2018, he signed a $300m (£235m) 10-year contract with Japanese clothing company Uniqlo.
He also plays an increasing number of lucrative exhibition matches, his meeting with Alex Zverev in Mexico last November setting a new tennis record of 42,217 spectators. Federer signed a four-year deal last October to play exhibitions in Hangzhou, China. When asked if he will play competitively until 2023, Federer said: “No, not logically. I just know that until then I can still play tennis at a level that I enjoy making people happy.”
The US Open is due to start on August 31 with the rescheduled French Open in September.