Roger Federer says any tournament comeback from his knee surgery last year will not be until at least the late European summer.
The 40-year-old tennis great gave an update on his lengthy rehabilitation to Swiss broadcaster SRF when he attended a women’s World Cup ski race at Lenzerheide, where he has a home.
It confirmed Federer’s comments last November that he would not return in time for Wimbledon in June, though he did not specify his plans for the US Open which starts August 29.
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The Swiss legend’s comments came after one of his coaches, Severin Luthi, had also expressed doubts over whether the eight-time Wimbledon champion would return in time for the grass court Grand Slam.
Federer told SRF his rehabilitation is progressing well enough that he is now thinking in terms of playing again.
“I walked on crutches for two months and had to start all over again,” he said.
“But it was the right thing. The knee was no longer good after Wimbledon. It couldn’t go on like this.”
Federer revealed that he was in the second of three phases in his rehabilitation process after knee surgery, adding that a recent MRI had returned “very good” results that made him confident of a return to the court.
Previously, Federer said the motivation for undergoing surgery last August was to protect his future quality of life with his family rather than return to competitive tennis.
Luthi also revealed that Federer had returned to the court this week to hit balls with his wife, Mirka.
Federer’s 20 Grand Slam singles titles are tied with Novak Djokovic and now one fewer than Rafael Nadal who won his 21st in January at the Australian Open.
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