MELBOURNE: Resurgent Roger Federer said a long period of rest when he took six months out with injury had fuelled his incredible shot at more Grand Slam glory at the Australian Open.
The 35-year-old Swiss veteran is wowing the tennis world with his wholly unexpected run through to Sunday's final, raising the prospect of an unprecedented 18th major title.
Federer, whose ranking has dipped to 17 after a knee problem ended last season following Wimbledon, has defied the doubters by reaching his 28th Grand Slam title match.
After a fighting, five-set semi-final win over fellow Swiss Stan Wawrinka, he became the oldest man to reach a major final since Australia's Ken Rosewall (39 years 310 days) at the 1974 US Open.
Federer said much of his rejuvenation stemmed from his injury break, the longest of his career, which followed surgery on his knee earlier in the season.
"It was a good thing to do. You can only ever do so much treatment to feel decent," said Federer, whose 19-year playing career has been largely injury-free.
"What I've come to realize is when you don't feel well, you have too many problems going on, you just won't beat top-10 players.
"All the time all you're doing is fighting the fire. From that standpoint, yeah, the six months definitely gave me something in return."
The Swiss marvel has spent a total of 13 hours 40 minutes on court in his six matches to get to his sixth Australian final, but he says he feels in good shape.
"I just wanted to get healthy again. I'm happy this week has been a good one," he said.
"So I will leave it all out here in Australia and (even) if I cannot walk for another five months, I will give it all I have."
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.