Roger Federer may have played his last Australian Open after the tennis legend revealed he’s still months away from returning from his latest knee surgery.
Federer said on Saturday that he’s “in a really good place” with his recovery from last month’s knee surgery.
However the 40-year-old revealed it’s going to take a “few more months” to get back on the tennis court – making a return at the Australian Open in January appear unlikely.
Federer, who shares the all-time men’s record of 20 major titles with Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic, had two knee operations in 2020 that kept him out of the tour for more than a year.
He returned to action in March this year but injured the knee again during the grass court season and said he needed more surgery in order to resume playing.
“It was a tough process to take that decision, just because I already had couple of knee surgeries last year,” Federer told Jim Courier in an interview at the Laver Cup on Saturday.
“I was really unhappy with how things went at Wimbledon. I was just nowhere near where I wanted to be to play at the top, top level.
“But I tried my best and at the end, at some point, too much is too much. Now I’ve just got to take it step by step.”
Federer reached the quarter-finals at the All England club but lost in straight sets to Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz, failing to win a game in the third set.
The Swiss, who is a co-creator of the Laver Cup, made a late decision to travel to Boston for the fourth edition of the exhibition event featuring Team Europe and Team World, moving around on crutches.
