Google News
Roger Federer will leave playing tennis at the end of the next Laver Cup, and tennis has really come to a standstill since that video announcement to celebrate one of the greatest in history. Perhaps the greatest of all time.
But Roger Federer is not just a sum of talent, charisma and victories. The Basel phenomenon is also a concentrate of stories, like any character. A decision, Roger's, inevitable and dictated by continuous physical problems. There were many who hoped that the Master could give himself one last lap of the carousel in 2023, but the former ATP number 1 realized that he could not continue.
The 20-time Grand Slam champion won't even compete at the ATP Basel, meaning he won't be able to contest a singles match. The last two and a half years have been terrible for the 41-year-old Swiss, who has had to deal with a serious injury to his right knee.
Roger underwent three operations, but his physique no longer allowed him to play at a high level. Roger knows how to play the piano well. He has shown his skills on more than one occasion, and he himself admits that he likes to surprise his wife Mirka by playing the piano.
Roger said at the time "The piano was fun, I liked to play again. My parents asked me to play the piano when I was younger and of course my head was in tennis, so for me the piano was always a little more complicated, but playing it again today was a lot of fun."
Ljubo reflects on King Roger
Roger Federer's coach Ivan Ljubicic, speaking on the latest episode of The Tennis Podcast, touched upon his pupil's improvement against Nadal and the reasons behind it.
The Croatian believes that the 2017 Australian Open final was a turning point in their clashes. "I think obviously that match in Australia changed his way of experiencing Rafa, I believe. I think after that match he felt more and more confident that he has it on his racket, which wasn't the case against Rafa fighting for many times before that," he expressed, adding, "And so, I think after that match he kind of believed more and he played, you know, just tactically also a bit different.
I mean, personally I know I'm a perfectionist but I'm very sorry for that semifinal at Roland Garros they played each other. It was so windy that the match wasn't a real match, you know what I mean. So I would have, I would have wanted to see him playing Rafa on the equal terms. Not on equal terms, of course it was equal terms, but on the normal conditions," he said.
