BEVERLY HILLS, March 12, (THEWILL) – Former world number one Roger Federer suffered a disappointing best-of-three loss to Nikoloz Basilashvili in the quarter-finals of the Qatar Open. It brings to a snappy end of the veteran’s comeback event on the ATP Tour after his 405-day absence.
Federer overcame Britain’s number one Dan Evans, 7-6(8) 3-6 7-5 to take his first professional match in over a year after receiving a first-round bye in Doha. That win and the manner with which the Swiss maestro dispatched off some of his wins, especially that standard Federer backhand, which had been missed by many a “Fed” fan, was a beauty to see again.
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However, on Thursday, the Swiss superstar endured a frustrating deciding set against the Georgian journeyman Basilashvili and looked very disappointed as he left the court. It was not hard to imagine that there would be plenty socially-distanced fans in attendance and much more at home seeing even more disappointment to see the exit of a well-beloved athlete.
In his post-match interview, Federer said matter-of-factly: “Like I said, I’m not at 100 percent yet. I can feel it, I can see it. I’m still building up. This is a stepping stone. I’m actually happy with how I felt on court overall. I felt better against Dan [Evans] physically, naturally.”
The 20-time Grand Slam champion shrugged off any fresh injury concerns about the way he played in the final set: “I honestly expected to feel this way. There is a muscle pain in my shoulder and I will be a little stiff in the morning.
“But overall, the body is fine. I’m happy.”
Before defeating Evans, the 39-year-old had not won a match since January 2020 at the Australian Open, where he suffered a groin injury which practically signalled the beginning of his sojourn. The Swiss star then needed to undergo arthroscopic surgery in his right knee that forced him to withdraw from the clay-court season entirely.
Things did not improve, however and, when Federer suffered a setback, he decided to shut himself down for the remainder of the year.
This time, barring any other bother from the ache in the shoulder, Federer is expected to continue his phased progress to get back into the Majors. It might take some time for his old form to kick in but he will definitely need to up the ante if he truly hopes to be as competitive as other players in today’s ATP events and actually win.
No one understands this better than Federer: “I still need another five or six weeks in fitness.
“In the next four months until Wimbledon, we’ve got to take a real good look at the schedule and see how much workload the knee can take, and what’s the best way to prepare for what’s basically the beginning of the season for me – which is the grass court season.”
