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Last week the holder of 20 Grand Slam singles
titles confirmed that fitness issues after two knee operations
in 2020 mean that fans will not see him in action at the
Australian Open in February for the first time in more than two
decades.
"A player of his stature, at some point when you're not winning,
you start to wonder about why you're only making the
quarter-finals, when you're used to being in the final,"
Woodbridge told Channel Nine this week.
"It doesn't give the same adrenaline rush as it always has, and
that's when you start to think to yourself that you've got other
things to do with your life."
A semi-final defeat in Melbourne in 2020 was Federer's last
competitive match, and playing five-setters in the Australian
summer heat after a lengthy injury and 14 days quarantine would
have been a tricky proposition for the 39-year-old.
Federer has not missed a trip to Melbourne Park since a loss in
qualifying in 1999.
Yves Allegero, Federer's fellow Swiss and former doubles
partner, feels skipping the Australian Open was a logical
decision.
"All his career, Roger Federer only lined up if he was 100%
physically," Allegro told the 20min website
https://www.20min.ch. "So he made the right decision, especially
since he has plenty of time left to prepare for his main goals
of Wimbledon and the Olympics."
Participating at a fifth Olympics featured prominently in
Federer's agenda, and the postponement of the Tokyo Games by a
year due to the COVID-19 pandemic worked perfectly for the
Swiss, who would otherwise have missed it due to injury.
The last of his major titles might have come on the Melbourne
hardcourts in 2018, but Federer may see Wimbledon's grasscourts,
where he has won eight titles and made the final in 2019, as the
most realistic surface to add to his tally.
"For Roger to continue on, he'll have to be able to manage his
body when he does come back," said Woodbridge, who won 22 Grand
Slam doubles titles.
"His goals, I assume, would be to play at the Olympics and at
Wimbledon. Wimbledon is the major that I see him being able to
win at this stage of his career."
Federer is plotting a return in late February and the current
men's calendar would suggest that the ATP 500 event in Rotterdam
from March 1 could be the first stop in 2021 for the world
number five.
The Swiss proved that he can quickly get back into his groove
when he won the 2017 Australian Open despite missing the second
half of 2016 season because of knee surgery.
(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai; editing by Nick
Mulvenney and Hugh Lawson)
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