Roger Federer withdraws from French Open on Sunday, saying he didn’t want to push himself on the road to recovery.
The 39-year-old, playing only his third tournament in 16 months, the first 12 of those were spent convalescing from knee surgeries. In the early hours of Sunday, Federer scored a fighting 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (3-7), 7-6 (7-4), 7-5 win over Germany’s Dominik Koepfer in the third round.
The match may have taken more out of the eighth seed than he bargained for.
— Roger Federer (@rogerfederer) June 6, 2021
Federer, who exited Court Philippe Chatrier close to 1am following the three-hour, 35-minute encounter, first raised doubts of his further participation in the tournament during his post-match media interaction.
“After discussions with my team, I decided I will need to pull out of Roland Garros today,” Federer said in a statement. “After two knee surgeries and over a year of rehabilitation, it’s important that I listen to my body and make sure I don’t push myself too quickly.”
There’s nothing quite like it ❤️ pic.twitter.com/A5SCKFptrs
— Roger Federer (@rogerfederer) June 6, 2021
Federer noted that the matches on clay were important for him. “I hadn’t practiced for three hours 35, because that’s obviously always pushing it. I pushed as much as I could, as we thought reasonable. But today was a huge step forward for all of us,” he said, following his third-round win. “I didn’t expect to be able to win three matches here. Back up a good performance against (Marin) Cilic in completely different circumstances.”