Claudio Mezzadri believes Roger Federer is not yet ready to hang up his tennis racket and could still play for two more seasons amid speculations of retirement following the Swiss Maestro's decision to skip the remainder of the season.
Mezzadri, former captain of the Swiss Davis Cup team, is not convinced Federer is ready to walk away from tennis following the Swiss' shocking decision to skip the remainder of the season after re-injuring his surgically-repaired knee at Wimbledon.
According to Mezzadri, Federer is still suffering pain in his left knee and would have loved to play at the US Open, but doctors advised the 17-time Grand Slam winner to take a significant time off to fully recover from his latest setback.
"Federer is still suffering pain in his knee," Mezzadri said, reports Tennis World USA.
"He would have liked to play the US Open but doctors advised him not to come back on the court so early. Roger could have been back in Basel but since chances of playing the ATP World Tour Finals were really fewer, with Ivan [Ljubicic] he decided to extend the time and to come back directly next year."
Severin Luthi, Federer's coach, provided an update about the 34-year-old Swiss' condition just few days after the 17-time Grand Slam winner became inactive for the rest of the season. According to Luthi, Federer is already rehabbing his knee and could play competitive tennis if he wishes to, although there could be serious implications forcing himself to get back to the tennis scene immediately.
"He is working with the physio ... This means he is rebuilding the whole muscle structure, the back and the leg ... If he had to play tennis today, he could do that also. The question is at what level and with what price," Luthi told Tages-Anzeiger via Tennis Magazine.
Federer has confirmed his participation in Stuttgart through 2017 and has already worked on the design of his outfit for the 2018 US Open, hinting that the Basel native could indeed pay for a couple more years. However, Federer's scheduled return at the Hopman Cup after 15 years, may also spark rumors about Federer considering 2017 as a farewell tour.
It remains to be seen whether Federer would truly consider retirement next year, but his intentions to come back strong and healthy next year should erase any speculations of Federer ending his illustrious career in the foreseeable future.
"The love I have for tennis, the competition, tournaments and of course you, the fans remains intact," Federer wrote in a Facebook post. "I am as motivated as ever and plan to put all my energy towards coming back strong, healthy and in shape to play attacking tennis in 2017."