Roger Federer says his story in tennis is "not over yet" in a message to long-time rivals Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Federer returns to the court for the first time in 14 months at the Qatar Open in Doha, taking on the winner of Jeremy Chardy vs Dan Evans in the second round. "At this moment I feel like it's about: Let's see how matches go. Let's how see training goes with all the top guys and professional players, not just sparring partners," Federer said ahead of his return in Doha. "I was playing a lot of two-on-ones the last few months and so forth. I know I need to go back to training after here again. From this standpoint, it's still building up to being stronger, better, fitter, faster, all that stuff. So, I hope by Wimbledon I will be 100 per cent and from then on the season really starts for me. "Everything until then, let's see how it goes. I might surprise myself, which I have actually already done in practice the last three weeks. I was surprised how well it did go. Like we know matches are a different animal. Right now, I take it day-by-day, happy I am back on the Tour again, and see how things go. "For me, everything starts hopefully with the grass, yeah. I just feel like the story's not over yet. I don’t know how to explain. It's not like for one particular reason why I wanted to keep on playing tennis other than I enjoy playing tennis, I enjoy being on the road. That will all be checked and tested this year with bubble life, quarantine all around. The whole mask situation. Travel is difficult. Rehabbing and all that stuff is not complete yet, you know? "So I'm still a work in progress. Probably one of the reasons is that I would like to get the high again of playing against the best players, playing the biggest tournaments. Winning them, hopefully, and winning the best tournaments. Hopefully I will play long enough to see full crowds again. That will be a nice thing as well and we all hope for that. But for me it was just more like the knee was not good anymore, I'm not happy with it and it needs to be fixed." Asked about his second keyhole operation on his right knee, Federer explained: "It came about just like that. I would go for a walk with the kids and my knee would swell up, which surprised me because training had gone well for the first few weeks. This is a moment when you question yourself a little bit more."
Source: Express/ *Join us on Telegram!/ Follow us on Twitter!