Roger Federer is to bring down the curtain on his illustrious career this week, but the Swiss maestro has assured his millions of fans that he will not become a “tennis ghost.”
In London, downriver from where he won a record eight Wimbledon titles, the 41-year-old said he had no intention of walking away from a sport he has graced for so long.
Speaking to reporters at London’s O2 Arena, where Federer twice won the ATP Finals title, the Swiss was emotional at times as he explained the decision to hang up his racket.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Asked what his plans were, Federer said he would not disappear like Swedish great Bjorn Borg, who is captaining Europe against the Rest of the World this week.
“I just wanted to let the fans know I won’t be a ghost. It’s funny, I spoke about Bjorn Borg, he didn’t return to Wimbledon for 25 years and that hurts every fan,” Federer said of the 11-time major winner, who quit tennis aged 26. “But I don’t think I’ll be that guy. I feel tennis has given me too much. I have been around the game for too long. Have fallen in love with too many things.”
“You’ll see me again. In what capacity, I don’t know. Still have to think about it a little bit, give myself some time,” he said.
Federer on Thursday last week announced that the Laver Cup, the team event he helped create, would be the last act of a professional career spanning almost a quarter of a century.
Elaborating on his decision to retire from competitive action, Federer described the past few months as stressful, saying he was not willing to “risk it all” by having more surgery on his troublesome right knee.
“At some point you sit down and go: ‘Okay, we are at an intersection here, at a crossroads, and you have to take a turn, and which way is it?’” he said. “I was not willing to go into that direction of let’s risk it all. The hardest part after that is when you realize: ‘Okay, this is the end.’”
Federer has not played a match since losing in the Wimbledon quarter-finals last year and is not in shape to play singles at the Laver Cup.
He hopes to bow out in a doubles tie, preferably alongside great rival Rafael Nadal.
“I don’t know if it’s going to happen, but it could obviously be a special moment,” he said.
WTA JAPAN OPEN
Staff writer
Taiwan’s Latisha Chan yesterday was eliminated in the doubles at the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, losing 7-6 (7/3), 6-4 alongside partner Alexa Guarachi of Chile against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez.
Chan and Guarachi on Monday won their first-round match 6-4, 4-6, 10-5 against Japan’s Miyu Kato and Wang Xinyu of China.
Sister Chan Hao-ching and partner Shuko Aoyama of Japan on Tuesday lost their opening-round match 2-6, 6-3, 10-8 to Melichar-Martinez and Perez.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but