Federer Back Practising With More Intensity
The Swiss is hitting outdoors in his native Switzerland
The last time Roger Federer hit a ball in anger was in January of this year in his semi-final to defeat to Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open.
Since then the Swiss has undergone two knee surgeries, witnessed the 175-day suspension of the tour from his home in Valbella, and gone through an extensive rehab program to ensure his body is ready for a touted comeback at next years Australian Open.
Since the additional arthroscopic surgery, Federer’s time on a tennis court has been limited to just a couple of hours at a time, but this week the Swiss appears to have upped the intensity, tweeting for the first time in a while that he was ‘Back to work’.
Back To Work
While Federer would normally be gearing up for the season-ending ATP Finals in London, his practice in the off-season usually takes him to Dubai.
However, this year it is Switzerland, and it must be the first time in 20 years that Federer has practised outside, in November, on an outdoor hard court on home soil. My only question is who swept up the leaves?! A leaf vacuum or good old fashioned brush? 😁
Alongside Federer’s return to practice, his coach, Ivan Ljubicic, also revealed in an interview that Roger’s recovery was going well.
Roger Federer is in the recovery phase, I would say that things are going in the best possible way. He trains more and more and better, I’m curious to see how much we can push in the coming months. The program we had in mind to date has been fully respected. There is a lot of trust. Talking about programs is now premature. Ivan Ljubicic on Federer’s recovery
Ljubicic also gave nothing away regarding Federer’s schedule for next year, which given his typical long term planning must have been fleshed out to a degree.
I certainly can’t tell today what we will do in April. I know we want to leave as soon as possible, play a big Australian Open and then evaluate step by step. It is important to go step by step and observe rest periods. As we have always done. Ljubicic on Federer’s 2021 plans.
Do you expect Federer to be ready for the Australian Open? Will it even go ahead? Let me know in the comments.
Long time…
Since I updated the comment leaderboard? I know 😀
Hi Jonathan,
It’s good to see Federer practicing again! I am a big fan myself.
I love the picture of him serving on the practice court with the trees on the background. Do you know how to get in contact with the photographer?
[email protected]
Hi Jonathan,
Thanks for answering so quickly on my question about the Federer picture. Too bad the e-mail adres seems to be incorrect. Do you know an other way to get in contact with the f photographer? Or an other email address? Thanks. Albert
Hi Albert,
You are experiencing Jonathan’s warped and sick sense of humor. What he is saying is the person probably taking the photo is Fed’s coach, Severin Luthi.
I could be wrong though?
Correct, it’s from Instagram. There is no photographer, it was Luthi or another coach.
Go Roger!!!! 💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼
Thanks for this, Jonathan. It has just been usch a crazy year for us all. I sincerely hope that the AO will take place and that we will once again see the GOAT walk out to play.
It should do assuming players can travel.
They have pursued the zero covid strategy which is stupid/dependent on a vaccine. But should mean they can host an event with spectators albeit non from overseas. Although who knows, even just a couple of cases causes panic.
They should better take care to not have again wild bush-fires.
In case they are still in panic because of 2 or 20 infections a day, the best would be maybe to invite everyone very early, just to have off-season in Australia, quarantine included.
IMO big case surges in Europe mean, we are closing herd immunity, which is the only way to control pandemic. Some countries (Australia, New Zealand …) excluded – with their policy they will never reach herd immunity. If 50% or more people don’t take vaccine for different reasons (who wants be the guinea pig?).
But things went so deep into politics, that I don’t believe, herd immunity process would be allowed anywhere in the world. Maybe in countries like Poland (our PM told recently, we will reach herd immunity maybe in January/February 2021), where people are extremely undisciplined and chaotic, both on the street, at home and in the governing authorities 😉 As of late our epidemiologists were talking about 70% of current infections to come from families. How do you do a lock-down in families?
I hope for Fed and everyone, they get no 5,783 cases in Melbourne early in January 😉
Nice landscape in Switzerland – does not look after closing winter.
Leaves? Hmmm, maybe Photoshop? Or Fed is pasted into a beautiful landscape from PS collection? 😉
Knowing Roger Is practicing is great news. Such a surreal year for everyone. So let’s hope we will have the pleasure to watch Roger at the AO in good form.
Something to look forward to!
Going to be very interesting to see if he’s able to fully fit, this looks like it has been a very slow rehab process.
Yes, I agree. Hmmm, we don’t hear anything about Nadal’s knees anymore?
Handsome tennis is back – in beautiful surroundings – ohhh dream returned
Yeah not sure where it is, Zurich maybe.
Well, my daughter is in Zurich this week…
Videos, please! Even if they’re in portrait mode (ugh.)
No footage around, I am guessing they didn’t do it due to the natural critiques and panic it would have caused if he wasn’t running around the court like a mad man. OMG he looks slow!
No problem with being quick. He will of course never more be so quick as he was before years. Now it’s not about being quick but about being optimal. If you have the joystick and the other is assumed to run for both, you may even sit down 😉
Seriously – I don’t think, Fed would try to be quick on legs. Is enough, if he is quick with hands and with brain. Which is of course still possible.
I guess, he is working on a new bags of fake shots and the “guess-where-lands-the-ball” tactic.
Mixing was always Fed’s big tool. Why not go another step ahead with this?
Did you watch Thiem vs. Hugo Gaston at RG? Moonballing+ tons of crazy dropshots (well, plus tons of running) was almost enough to beat Thiem. Fed can hit crazy dropshots but why not more? Including serving backwards-dropshots 😉
Sight for sore eyes! Given all the current s..t! Incredible motivation. 👍👍
I see Tiley is pushing for a longer Aussie swing given the difficulty of travelling anywhere and the length of time they need to commit to playing in Oz. We shall see.
This photo doesn’t show it but he was arrested seconds after for not wearing a mask and fined 3 million Swiss francs.
It’s time for planning the off-season. Offering off-season possibilities in Australia could be good solution for many.
Go Fed. He actually got a break with the postponed and canceled events in regards to his ranking. I think he will want to play as much as possible in the new year to maintain that rank. Thank you for the story Jonathan. I have now moved to San Diego from Japan. All is good.
That must be work enforced rather than through your own volition? 😀
Yahoooo!!!
Thank you for the update, Jonathan.
Can’t wait to see the Fedmeister in action… 🙂
Cheers, yeah been too long.
Well, we will always hope for Roger to come back in full swing, but Roger is already 39 years old with a chronic back problem, and now with two operations and a break of 11 months from playing competitive tennis, we shouldn’t be too optimistic about his level when he returns in January next year.
You never know in tennis. I had written Federer off due to no more Grand Slam singles titles between Wimbledon in 2012 until The Australian Open in 2017 which he won at age 35 after a 6 month layoff due to injury and then followed it up with Wimbledon in 2017 and the Australian Open again in 2018 at age 36. Tennis doesn’t know how old you are. The odds are against Federer winning another Grand Slam singles title but as long as you are playing at a high level, anything can happen. Both Jimmy Connors and Ken Rosewall were making Grand Slam singles finals at a similar age to Federer is now and even older in the case of Rosewall, although they didn’t win them. Nothing is impossible for Federer even if Federer’s last 2 Australian Open titles came when Djokovic was injured. Federer also had match points against Djokovic in the Wimbledon final of 2018 when Federer was nearly 37 so he’s not far away.
As a boy, I was at Kooyong in January 1977, when Ken Rosewall was 42 and lost in the semi final of the Australian Open to Roscoe Tanner. When Ken Rosewall was approaching 43, he beat Vitas Geralitus in straight sets. Rosewall eventually retired at age 44 and made a brief singles comeback at age 47. Knowing Federer, he won’t be retiring anytime soon.
Federer’s opponents can sense whether Federer is not moving as well, making more rallying errors and not serving as well as he has in the past and therefore adjust their game plan to make it harder for Federer to win the match.
Golden sun 🌞
Golden leaves 🍁🍂
Golden frame 🎨
Golden boy 👦
Gold fingers ✋👊👌✌
Golden eye 😎
Golden athlete 🐆
Golden serve 🎾🗝 💪🏹💣
Golden heart 💛🔥
Golden age : 39, 40 … ⏳
Golden years : 2021, 2022… +++⌚⏰
Golden dreams 🤔 🙏
Golden trophies ? 🏆🎁
Golden star 🌘🌟
Golden king 👑 🐐
We’ll be watching, for sure ! 👀 💓🤓🙌
Our agendas are ready for more of Fed’s music ! 🔔📯♪♫🎉
Fed level emoji skills 😀
Hopefully Career Golden Slam 🙂
Hi everyone! So nice to Roger on a tennis court. Such a beautiful setting. The tour will have to be creative. Staying in Oz for a while makes sense. I know IW is selling tickets but I ain’t buyin.
Not now “The Big Guy” will be in charge, perma-lockdown.
@Jonathan
Any idea, how the ranking and seeding will work in January? How will it affect Fed? Will he start with PR?
Someone said Roger would be seeded no. 5 because they’ve protected everyone’s points. Don’t know if that’s true – I haven’t been following these things at all?
It seems, the Covid-ranking is especially favorable for those who did well in 2019 and didn’t play 2020 at all. Nobody could lose points from 2019 in 2020. If 2021 can start with kind of normal calendar, points will be lost from tournaments played 2019/2020 as they are going to be played in 2021. Example Rafa: he won RG both 2019 and 2020. But it counts only once. He got 2020 a title “only”, no additional points, so he loses only 2000 before RG 2021.
Current ranking can only be changed in London, because everyone playing London 2019 loses points and points won in London 2020 will count for the season 2021 (if I don’t miss something – Jon will know better :)).
Both Fed and Zverev drop 400 points in London and if Zverev wins London losing one match in RR, Zverev will pass him and Fed would start 2021 ranked 6.
Then Fed will have a lot to drop in 2021 and could eventually fall in the ranking (depending of his results in 2021 of course).
Fantastic news. Can’t wait to see him back in action in Australia!
Great news. Can’t wait to see him face the GOAT.
In Paris? The only place, where NADAL can still face the GOAT and survive?
You should check the facts xD
Hey Guys,
Time to vote for the Fan Favorite! Don’t forget!
Thiem beats Nadal
Djokovic beaten by Medwedev
Is this weak era of the last decade, where younger & younger guys have not been able to replace the between 10 and 20 years older Big3 finally coming to an end or is this just another outlier at the end of a very strange tennis year ?
Thiem can beat anybody, he is been proving that for a few years already. And Medvedev is a top player under this conditions plus Djokovic is not finishing at his best. No surprises here to me really.
The question remains as usual and what about in the Grand Slams? I still think that next year’s RG and W will go to the big 3 for sure but maybe in the hard court GS these players can have a bigger chance.
You have read my mind! I am at one with you one hundred percent, Pablo!
I just have had to switch the names between the group phase and the semis:
* Thiem beats Djokovic
Nadal beaten by Medwedev
Is this weak era of the last decade, where younger & younger guys have not been able to replace the between 10 and 20 years older Big3 finally coming to an end or is this just another outlier at the end of a very strange tennis year ?
* btw Nadal still did not manage to win the ATP Finals in his career.
* His only real achievement in 2020 was winning a slam with Roland Garros after skipping NY due to the ATPs Covid-Protected Ranking and taking a huge benefit from the draw when almost everybody was physically degraded after this back to back slam right after NY.
* Djokovic’s last win at the ATP finals was in 2015, pretty long time ago. Thank god he is wasting so much energy as a PTA Tennis politician on his quest to achieve tons of love & respect – which still does not happen…
Nadal missed a lot of tennis tournaments in his life due to injuries but he won 20 Grand Slams, nevertheless, equaling Roger Federer, who started his tennis career over four years earlier than him. Nadal’s limitations that he is not as good as Roger on all the surfaces, his extraordinary domination being only on clay, that he did not win any ATP Finals, and that he quit matches in the middle many times due to whatever certainly come in the way of naming him the GOAT.
Dr Evil, don’t denigrate Nadal’s brilliant Tennis career. Nadal has won 20 Grand Slam singles titles from 59 Grand Slam tournaments played. Nadal has won 7 Grand Slam singles titles away from clay, the same number of Grand Slam singles titles that John McEnroe won in his whole career. Nadal is a Champion!
I agree Nadal is a champion. My point is, this year’s GS win in Paris was a cakewalk for him…
And not winning WTF after having qualified for 16 times for this tournament of the best 8 players still is a strong fact, sorry
I think that Nadal is – among the top players – the one whose performance in a particular court type is more differentiated from the other ones. A more distracted or biased observer might point out almost equivalently that Fed’s performance on clay is way worse than on grass or hard court, but that’s not even the case. He just happened to stumble upon Nadal time and again on clay. Otherwise he might have now 3 or 4 RG cups on the shelf. But if we pursue the “what if” path, we’ll slide down right a never ending rabbit hole, bottom cheeks burning… and everyone has had enough of that, right?
Nadal will learn from his defeat to Medvedev. He wasn’t far away after serving for the match in the 2nd set. Rafa will rise to the occasion and win The Australian Open in January 2021, assuming the event is not delayed past January. Nadal has the confidence to beat Djokovic in the Australian Open as his game plan of creating angles and getting Djokovic out of court in the French Open will help him likewise in the Australian Open. Nadal is also much harder to beat over 5 sets in Grand Slam events. Nadal can beat Medvedev over 5 sets like he did in the US Open Final. Nadal will also be more aggressive this time if he plays Thiem in the Australian Open.
Rafa who was the defending US Open Champion, decided not to play the US Open as it was too close to the French Open and issues with the coronavirus pandemic. I have no doubt Rafa could have won the US Open again for a 5th time had it not been for the coronavirus.
What I have learnt over many years of watching tennis is to never ever write off a champion!
Didn’t you learn too that even greatest champion have limits and everyone must retire or decline?
I was happy to see a new winner at the WTF. Most of the new guys on scene I like. Rublev’s grunting is annoying. I have very little emotion tied into who wins and looses. One hundred percent turnaround from a Fed match!
I know why everyone here is happy. Donald Trump has lost the election. Sad! But it is what it is.
Hope everyone is doing great. Thought I’d check in to “check the condition your condition is in.”
And I heard “Cassius Clay” is on his way to greatness?
DrEvil, Prabir and PRF, you have all been harsh on Nadal.Why? Also why don’t mention all the good things that Nadal has achieved. Focus on the positives not the negatives. I bet you would never say negative things about Federer.
This is primarily a place for the Fedmeister-Fans. Nadal can for Sure be praised elsewhere…
Fed will not play Australian Open 2021.