Roger Federer Withdraws From the 2021 Australian Open

Six-time Australian Open champion Roger Federer is withdrawing from the first tennis major tournament of the season. The announcement was made on Monday by Federer’s longtime agent and TEAM8 CEO Tony Godsick via AP. Per Godsick:

“Roger has decided not to play the 2021 Australian Open. He has made strong progress in the last couple of months with his knee and his fitness. However, after consultation with his team, he decided that the best decision for him, in the long run, is to return to competitive tennis after the Australian Open.”

Godsick also added that the team will start discussions this week for tournaments that begin in February and start making a schedule for Federer’s 2021 season.

Hinting at Retirement

Earlier this month, Federer created a stir when he hinted about his retirement during his acceptance remarks at the Switzerland Sports Award. In that speech, Federer said that he hopes to return in 2021 but if his “career had to end here”, it was incredible to end it with the award. The Swiss tennis Maestro was named as Switzerland’s Greatest Athlete of the past 70 years during the show.

Federer also revealed that his 2021 plans include one final run at Roland Garros and an opportunity to play in the Olympics where he wants to try one final time to win an Olympic gold medal in the singles competition which is the only prize that has eluded his all-time great tennis career.

At that time, Federer already said that he was unsure about playing in the 2021 Australian Open, even if the latter will start later than its traditional play date. According to Federer, his body is far from 100% despite doing everything in his power to recover from a right knee injury that kept him out for the most part of 2020.

No Melbourne Comeback

The Swiss Maestro has not played since the 2020 Australian Open last January where he lost in straight sets to Novak Djokovic in the semifinals. Federer underwent arthroscopic knee surgery in February and that caused him to miss the Dubai, Indian Wells, and Miami Open tournaments as well as the French Open.

He targeted to return to the grass season but announced in June that he needed a second surgery on the same knee. Federer would end up shutting down his 2020 season and spending the rest of the year in his home trying to get back in shape. Federer is currently training in his offseason home in Dubai.

The 2021 Australian Open main draw is expected to begin on February 8th. Its start will be delayed by three weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic. Prior to the announcement of his withdrawal, Federer was listed fifth in the championship odds board at +600 at BetOnline.ag.

The Greatest?

Just before Christmas, Federer was named as the ATP’s favorite singles player, the 18th consecutive time he’s won the award. But not only is Federer the most well-loved tennis player in the world, he is also considered as one of the best ever, if not the greatest of all-time.

The 39-year old has won a total of 20 grand slam singles tournaments, a record which rival Rafael Nadal tied this year with the latter’s 2020 French Open win. Federer has stayed on top of the tennis rankings for a record of 310 weeks including another record of 237 consecutive weeks. He has won a total of 103 ATP tournaments, second-most overall behind Jimmy Connors.

After winning his first Grand Slam at the 2003 Wimbledon final, he emerged as the world’s top tennis player by winning three of the next year’s four grand slam events. From 2005-2010, there was a stretch where Federer made the finals in 18 of 19 consecutive grand slam events, winning five straight Wimbledon and U.S. Open singles titles during that span. At the age of 27, he broke Pete Sampras’ previous all-time mark of 14 grand slam singles titles and has since been adding to his record.