Roger Federer: ‘I haven’t had any setbacks over the last six months’

Roger Federer (ATP number 5) will return to competition at the Doha tournament, scheduled for March 8-13. This was announced by the same man from Basel in an interview with SRF.

The 39-year-old has not played an official match since the Australian Open semi-final lost to Novak Djokovic on 30 January 2020.

Later, after his last outing in the friendly match organized in South Africa with Rafael Nadal, two operations on his right knee forced him to a long stop.

In the spring Federer plans to play some tournaments on clay, but the main goals are Wimbledon, the Olympics and the US Open, scheduled between late June and mid-September.

Roger Federer on his return

Roger Federer is not playing at the Australian Open – which begins on February 8 – for the first time in 23 years and says the decision “hurt”, but he needed more time. “I thought long and hard about when and where to come back,” he told SRF.

“Australia was still a bit too early because of my knee. That hurts; it’s one of the places where I like to play the most”. Instead of Melbourne, Federer will make his comeback at the ATP 250 in Doha starting on March 8.

“I wanted to make my comeback at a smaller tournament, so as not to be fully in the spotlight, and where the stress is also a little less,” said Federer, who has won the tournament three times. I‘m not at 100 per cent, but close to there, that‘s why I‘m confident to come back.

I feel strong, better than in November and December, when there were a lot more insecurities. I do my sprints, play the sets, I haven’t had any setbacks over the last six months and that‘s very positive.” It will be increasingly difficult for Federer to stay on the pitch for many hours, especially in the early rounds of slam tournaments.

The only solution to this is to win games in as few sets as possible and shorten the games. His physique could not handle four or five hour matches, for this reason (as often done in his career) the keystone would be short exchanges.

Look for the winner immediately, without spending a lot of time studying with the opponent. There are two reasons: the possibility of losing the point (due to fatigue) and a waste of energy that could be fatal for the rest of the match.