Tennis legend and arguably one of the greatest players to have ever played the game of tennis, Roger Federer has made his return to the court after a long time. According to The Times of India, despite being away from tennis for more than a year, the 20-time Grand Slam champion has said that retirement was never in his mind as he feels his story is yet not over.

“Retirement was never really on the cards. I think it’s more of a conversation if the knee keeps bothering me for months and months then let’s look at it,” Federer said ahead of his participation in the Qatar Open. “I just feel like the story is not over,” he added.

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Federer underwent two surgeries on his right knee in 2020 which kept him away from the court for more than 12 months. While he underwent the first surgery in February last year, he announced in June about having undergone a second surgery as the knee kept swelling after the first surgery.

Having played his last match at the Australian Open 2020, Federer will finally resume playing on Wednesday in Doha where he would be up against either Dan Evans or Jeremy Chardy.

Federer told the reporters recently that he did not think it would take him this long to be playing again.

“I’m very happy to be back playing a tournament again. It’s been a long time. I never thought it would take this long,” Federer told reporters on Sunday.

“It’s just about ‘Let’s see how matches go, let’s see how training goes with all the top guys and professional players, not just sparring partners’,” he added. The 39-year-old also said that he has not planned his schedule for more than a week at the moment.

The Swiss tennis legend has now his eyes set on Wimbledon. “I know I need to go back to training after here again,” said Federer, who pulled out of the Miami Open later this month. “So from this standpoint, it’s still a building up to being stronger, better, fitter, faster and all that stuff. I hope, then, by Wimbledon, I’m going to be 100%, and from then on, then the season really starts for me. Everything until then, it’s just ‘Let’s see how it goes,” he added.

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