GENEVA: Former men’s tennis world number one Roger Federer plagued by recurring knee problems for the last two years hopes to make a comeback at the end of the summer, he told Swiss television.

Federer, who turns 41 in August, hasn’t played competitively since losing last July in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon to Pole Hubert Hurkacz.

He then withdrew from the Olympics and underwent his third bout of knee surgery in 18 months, to “suture” his right internal meniscus and “treat (his) cartilage”.

Federer played just 13 matches in 2021, havingplayed only six times in 2020.

“I am doing well, much better. For two months I was on crutches, it was long and I had to start from scratch. But it was the right thing to do. The knee wasn’t doing well after Wimbledon,” Federer told Swiss public broadcaster SRF in Lenzerheide.

“Now I’m slowly getting to a phase where I can think about a comeback,” he said.

Federer’s most recent Grand Slam title came at the 2018 Australian Open.

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2022