Roger Federer: 'The advantage is that I won't play...'

• Tennis News
• Roger Federer

The city of Basel welcomes tennis again. After a two-year break due to the pandemic, the ATP 500 indoor tournament will return to one of the main cities in Switzerland. However, it won't be the only big comeback: host and ten-time winner Roger Federer has announced he will take part in the Basel tournament.

The Swiss played his last match in the 2021 Wimbledon quarterfinals, losing to Pole Hubert Hurkacz. The one in Basel would therefore represent the "second" return of the former number one in the world. The return to the track, scheduled for Tuesday, October 25 (according to Sky Sports), could anticipate another great event, the Laver Cup.

Federer, in fact, will participate in the tournament that he himself designed and will be back in the doubles match with Rafael Nadal, recreating the well-known 'Fedal' However, the ATP 500 in Basel is not only the scene of great comebacks, but also of new "christenings": Carlos Alcaraz's participation in the tournament has been announced.

Although the grass season has only just begun, Carlos Alcaraz has decided to make long-term plans. In fact, the Basel tournament has announced that the young Spanish phenomenon will participate in the tournament for the first time, thus joining the winner of twenty Grand Slam titles.

The Spanish number two could be the tennis player who breaks a liturgy that has been maintained since 2017: for three consecutive years, it was Roger Federer who won the Basel tournament.

Federer had no option

During the interview, Roger Federer also touched on how he plans to curate his tennis schedule once he is back in action.

"[Whether my family will travel with me again for tennis tournaments] is a problem that I would really like to have. Because that would mean that everything is going well with the knee and the comeback," Federer said. "The advantage is that I won't play 20 tournaments a year like I used to.

My program will be manageable, and that's why I'll say: sometimes they'll be there, sometimes they won't. For a week in Shanghai or Indian Wells the effort is certainly too great. But I also know that my children would be happy to see certain places again, because that's where we meet our friends every year," Federer said.

"I knew [my knee surgery and recovery] would be a long process but the operation was necessary, I couldn't have played like this after Wimbledon. Now I hope to be able to get back into the Laver Cup in September," Federer said.