During this past morning, the tennis world suffered a new setback after a difficult year. Roger Federer announced, through his agent Tony Godsick, that he won’t be at the Australian Open. This decision by the Swiss breaks with a tradition of more than 20 years: seeing Federer contesting the first Grand Slam of the year, something that had happened uninterruptedly since 1999. In fact, the 22 consecutive participations of the Swiss were all-time record of the tournament.
He January 30th This year ending was the last time Federer was seen playing an official match. The tennis legend fell in the semifinals of the Australian Open to Novak Djokovic in three sets. A few weeks later, he would join his friend and rival Rafa Nadal for a charity match and, since then Roger has not been seen on a tennis court since. Two interventions on his battered knee and a long rehabilitation process are to blame for having a historic player in the dry dock for more than a year.
The absence of Roger in Melbourne casts even more doubts about the state of the Swiss, who will exceed the figure of a year without playing and, In the summer of 2021, he will turn 40. To put this last fact in perspective, the record for longest-lived Grand Slam winner remains in the hands of Ken Rosewall, at 37 years and one month. Federer, if he wants to add his great tournament number 21, he will have to get an unprecedented blow in tennis.
Because that is another of the collateral effects of the absence of the Swiss. Rafa Nadal, with his victory at Roland Garros this year, tied with Federer at 20 Grand Slam in the windows of each of them. With Roger’s discharge in Australia, The Balearic tennis player will have the first opportunity of his career to become the most successful solo tennis player in history. And it will also be a new opportunity for Djokovic to cut a gap in that race, in which he has already scored 17 titles.
Federer’s future plans are difficult to anticipate, as everything will depend on the condition of his knee. Roger himself has repeated on numerous occasions that he is well, that the sensations are good and rehab is working. But all this has not been enough to see the Swiss in Melbourne, looking for what would be his seventh Australian Open, and we will have to wait to see him again. The first speculations suggest that it will reappear in Rotterdam or Dubai, around the end of February. There are fewer doubts about the Swiss’s goals for 2021, which include arriving in the best possible shape for the summer, to be able to compete especially for Wimbledon and the Olympics. Many unknowns continue to surround Roger Federer and his knee but, if anyone is capable of returning to a high level with almost 40 years, that is the Swiss.
