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In the last few hours there had been several rumors about this particular possibility and in the post Doha press conference the tennis player had not yet dissolved his reservations, now Roger Federer has made it official.
The twenty-time Swiss champion winner of Grand Slam titles officially renounces the ATP 500 in Dubai. Fresh from today's elimination in the Doha quarter-finals against Georgian Basilashvili, Federer announced that he prefers to continue training for the rest of the season.
There is no information about what the next tournament of the Swiss player will be, but as announced by Roger at the press conference, the tennis player would like to take part in the season on clay. A small setback for fans who could not wait, after this week, to see their favorite on the pitch again.
Roger Federer is back to playing tennis this week after a year, a month and eleven days since his last match, the 2020 Australian Open semifinal against world number one Novak Djokovic. In his first match in the second half Federer beat, after a real battle, his rival (and also friend) Daniel Evans, defeated by 7-5 in the third set after more than two and a half hours of play.
In the second match, in the quarter-finals, Roger gave away at distance against Basilashvili and this time it was the opponent who won the pass for the semifinals where he will face the American Taylor Fritz. Great pity for Roger Federer who also had a match point at 5-4 and 30-40 on the opponent's serve but in the end he was unable to take advantage of the opportunity available.
Many surprises in today's Doha tournament with the elimination also of the seeded number one Dominic Thiem: the Austrian gave up after a great match and a battle against the Spaniard Roberto Bautista who won the match and will face the semifinal Russian Andrey Rublev, who arrived without having played a minute thanks to the retirements of his two opponents.
Given the circumstances, Roger Federer is content at simply playing some competitive matches. The Swiss does not intend to dwell on the loss much, and he claimed that he had a lot of positives to take from his return at the Doha Open.
Roger Federer on his return at the Doha Open
"I'm over it already," Roger Federer said. "I would have loved to get a win but I'm happy to get some rest. It's a really, really positive return for me. I'm really happy." Roger Federer was also asked whether he is planning to play the European clay swing, to which he replied that he had to since he needed match practice.
"What comes before the grass courts are the clay courts," Federer said. "So I have no choice but to play on clay if I want to play matches. The clay could be good or bad for me. I will only know in practice, but I don't think it's going to be bad. I assume I will play some clay."
