BARCELONA, 3 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Swiss tennis player Roger Federer expressed his desire to be able to play “once again” on Wimbledon Center Court, the centenary playing field that has given him “his best victories and defeats” and that he will not be able to step on this season due to injury knee injury suffered in the last edition of the London tournament.
“I hope I can come back one more time. Maybe I didn’t think it would take so long to come back, but the knee has been hard on me. I’ve been lucky enough to play many games on this court, it’s uncomfortable to be here in a different role,” he acknowledged. Federer during his visit to the All England Club on the occasion of the centenary of the Center Court of the tournament.
The 40-year-old Swiss was accompanied at the ceremony by former London ‘Grand Slam’ champions, such as Novak Djokovic, Martina Hingis, Margaret Court and Bjorn Borg. Thus, the eight-time tournament champion hopes to extend his long association with Wimbledon once he returns from his injury.
“This track has given me my biggest wins and losses. One of my highlights, of course, was in 2001, coming out here with Pete Sampras for a memorable fourth-round match, which inspired a lot of us to play, try succeed and represent the sport well. I hope I have achieved that,” he said.
The 20-time Grand Slam champion has not played a match since undergoing knee surgery following a straight-sets loss to Hubert Hurkacz in the Wimbledon quarterfinals last year.
However, the Swiss ruled out his retirement and intends to return to the ATP circuit in 2023. “I have missed being here, I would have loved to be here, but I knew after leaving here last year that it was going to be a tough year” added the Swiss, who despite the obstacles to return to the courts has been happy “regardless” of tennis.