Roger Federer: “I know I should be 800th in the ranking”

Roger Federer faces his second tournament of the year in Geneva after returning from a long period of inactivity due to injury. He reached the quarterfinals in Doha where he lost to Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili (6-3, 1-6 and 5-7) and from there he has dedicated himself to training until the home match where debuts tomorrow Tuesday (around 4:00 p.m., Teledeporte) in the second round against Pablo Andújar who defeated Australian Thompson 6-0, 6-4 .. After Geneva will come Roland Garros.

The 39-year-old Swiss did not hide from the media present in Geneva and was resounding about his physical condition. “Right now I cannot compare myself with the current achievements of others, I need about ten games to know where I am. There are still many doubts about my state of form, although training is going well, but the situation is completely different from the rest, it cannot even be compared to what happened in 2016. This time I come back from much further away than I did. five years ago ”, he assured in statements collected by 'puntodebreak.com'.

Regarding the design of his schedule, Federer explained it like this: “I had a lot of options to organize this little clay court tour, although I could have skipped it completely. However, I felt like I was ready to play tournaments again. Geneva is more than a small test, for me it is about the test to see if I can play several tournaments in a row. Now I have this and Roland Garros ahead of me, Two tournaments designed to get me back on track, the games I play there will be like training sessions but at a privileged level. Honestly, I have thought a lot about the deadlines for the return, there were long conversations with my team to find out if it was best to compete on clay or it was not, We even studied the option of playing tournaments on this surface and skipping Roland Garros. Finally, the best idea was to come to Geneva and then go to Paris. If all goes well, the next stops will be Halle and Wimbledon, already on the grass tour. We'll see how long it takes me to reach the level I want ”.

Federer was also clear when talking about the frozen ranking and the 8th position he occupies: “I know that I should be at number 800 in the ranking, since I do not play anything these months. Anyway, if my knee and my fitness aren't 100%, I won't be able to hold there forever. If I can be 100% and do it well, then it will mean that I am better than the number 800. What I can say is that in these two months since Doha I have gained in strength, resistance and flexibility, there was no setback ” .

Finally, the Swiss explained that he is vaccinated against Covid-19: “I'm glad I was able to get vaccinated, especially considering the amount of travel my job requires. Being vaccinated are all advantages, although the most important thing is that I do not want to infect anyone, so my family and I continue to be extremely careful “.