Novak World number one Djokovic said on Wednesday he hoped Roger Federer’s rival would soon return to competitive action and could compete with the best again after Swiss Great said he would miss the Australian Open in January.
Federer, 40, told Swiss media he could not return to competition until mid-2022 when he recovered from many knee operations and would be “very surprised” if he could play at Wimbledon, a grand slam he had won a record of eight times.
The big champion 20 times said he would be able to continue running in January and returned to training in court in March or April.
“Roger is our sports icon and people around the world love him.
They like watching him playing, love sees it around,” Djokovic said after securing a semi-final in the ATP final with a 6-3-6-6-6-6 victory over Russian Andrey Rublev.
“He is very important for our sport and from the court.
For our sport, I sincerely hope that we can see it playing at least another time.
I’m sure he doesn’t want to end his career this way.” I thought he would definitely give a last push, experimentation final.
For all he has achieved and created for this sport, he is worth playing and deserves to have the right separation.
“Djokovic wants to match the record of six Federer titles in the final ATP season.
He is at the top of the Green Group.
With two wins from two matches and will face Cameron Norrie in England in his final group match on Friday.