Roger Federer's challenges on his return to the circuit

Roger Federer made this Wednesday one of the most anticipated returns this season in the world of tennis. The Swiss reappeared on the circuit with a great victory against Daniel Evans in the Doha tournament, the first step towards several challenges that he wants to meet on his return to the competition at 39 years old (he will turn 40 in August). Here we review some of them

The tiebreaker with Nadal in Grand Slam

Rafa Nadal took advantage of Federer's absence from the circuit and the cancellation of Wimbledon due to the pandemic to equal Roger Federer's 20 Grand Slam at the past Roland Garros. The Spaniard starts as a favorite to take the lead in this particular battle since the next Grand Slam is Roland Garros, Nadal territory. However, Federer will try to prevent the Spaniard from escaping in this struggle for the supremacy of the great tennis tournaments.

His ninth Wimbledon

Another of Federer's goals on his return to tennis is to further consolidate on the grass at Wimbledon. After losing his ninth title to Novak Djokovic in 2019, Federer wants to remove the thorn from that final to get his ninth title at La Catedral, where he already has eight titles, the last of them in 2017.

Olympic gold in Tokyo and the Golden Slam

It is, without a doubt, Federer's great goal for this 2020 season. The Swiss already knows what it is to win Olympic gold in the doubles category (he did it with Wawrinka in Beijing 2008) but the Golden Slam in the individual category resists him , something that only Rafa Nadal has in the Big Three. Federer, who was silver in London 2012 and was not in Rio 2016 due to injury, wants to close his legend with Olympic gold.

Regain the throne of the ranking, the most difficult mission

Federer returns to competition in a week in which he has lost his historic dominance in the ATP rankings after Djokovic surpassed his record of 310 weeks at the top of the rankings. We will have to wait to see if Federer can rise to the top of the table again and, if he does, if he can close the gap with the new mark set by Djokovic.

Jimmy Connors' record for games won

A somewhat more affordable challenge for Federer is to become the player with the most matches won of all time. With his victory this Wednesday against Dan Evans, Federer has already accumulated 1,243 victories and is only 31 of Jimmy Connors' absolute record with 1,274. In addition, Federer is the fourth player with the highest percentage of victories of the Open Era with 82.1% of victories, only surpassed by Nadal and Djokovic (83.1% each) and Bjorn Borg (82,%).

Jimmy Connors' title record

Federer also has within his grasp the possibility of becoming the tennis player with the most titles won in the Open Era. The Swiss already has 103 trophies in his windows after winning the Basel Tournament in 2019 and is only 6 titles away from equaling the record held by Jimmy Connors with 109.