Updated:03/02/2021 01: 11h
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With the circuit already underway, the tennis players enjoying the Eden that is now Australia and its zero incidence of coronavirus – yesterday, the second day without a single contagion – the romantics of the racket were deluded with a last hour that never came. Roger Federer returns, although his return will not be in Melbourne because he resigned weeks ago to the first Grand Slam it’s from the season. Once he has assimilated the signals sent by his right knee, operated twice in 2020, the Swiss has scheduled his return for the tournament of Doha, an ATP 250 that is celebrated from March 8 and that, despite being a lower-ranking event, usually collects pedigree rackets for the money that is distributed in that corner of the planet.
The genius reappears more than a year later, the photo illustrating this information being the last time he was seen competing on a track, the January 30, 2020 (on February 7 he participated with Rafael Nadal at an exhibition in South Africa). It was, precisely, in the Rod Laver, the semifinals of Australia against Djokovic. «For the first time I have the feeling that my knee is ready to play tournaments again. You have to be mentally and physically ready to play five games in five days, for example. That’s why I’m going back to the Qatar tournament in Doha, ”the 20-grand champion explained to SRF radio. Federer has always used the Swiss media to reveal his plans and secrets.
Five in the world still because the pandemic has benefited him in that sense, he already revealed in December that he was not evolving well enough to play in Australia, a tournament that he had not lost since 1998. It was said that he was resigning mainly because in the oceanic country it was imperative pass a strict quarantine and did not want to be away from his wife and four children for so long, but it was the knee that commanded. “I have been thinking about when and where to return for a long time. Australia was too early, “he reflected aloud, the first to assume that a Grand Slam like Melbourne’s, with two very tough weeks, five-set matches and terrible heat, was too much tute. “I wanted to return in a smaller tournament, where the stress is a little less,” he acknowledged.
He will return to win, to be the protagonist again on Sunday afternoons, but it is true that he feels the weight of the years, what less.In August he will turn forty and wants to try again, although the runrún runs in the dressing room that this 2020 It could be the end of a splendid career. With Wimbledon Between eyebrows, the garden that opened the door to paradise, Federer does not forget the Tokyo Olympics, fundamental for him because in 2018 he sealed a mega-contract of 300 million dollars for ten years with the Japanese brand Uniqlo.
“Without crushing the body”
Already in 2017, Federer returned to the courts after a six-month hiatus and did it in a big way, but the body, he says, is no longer the same. In any case, he has not lost interest in tennis – “I thought that with my children and rehabilitation I would be busy to spare, but I was surprised to continue verifying results and watching matches,” he points out – although he is already glimpsing his retirement. “In the future I want to be able to go skiing with the children and Mirka. Or go on a hike, play basketball or start play ice hockey: I still have many dreams. For that I need a good body and I don’t want to crush it ».
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