Roger Federer, Serena Williams Confirmed For Australian Open 2021

Roger Federer and Serena Williams, two of the biggest icons in tennis today, were confirmed as participants in the 2021 Australian Open.

This year has been a struggle for both of these stars as injuries have plagued their time on the court. While Williams has had the opportunity to play under the "new normal," she recently withdrew from the ongoing French Open tournament due to an Achilles injury.

For Federer, he was forced to sit out the rest of 2020 to give way for his recovery from knee surgery earlier this year.

It was Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley who announced that Federer and Williams will be part of the January Grand Slam where both are looking to make history.

“Roger this morning just confirmed publicly he'll be here,” the Australian Open tournament director said on Sunday, Yahoo Sports reported.

“Serena Williams will be here obviously trying to get Margaret Court's record, so we're excited about the players that will be here and what we'll put on,” he continued.

Both players are chasing history as winning another major title will do wonders for their already illustrious career. If Federer earns another title then he will add another trophy to his already historic 20 Grand Slam victories. A Williams win on the women’s side will tie Court’s record of 24 major wins.

“We're going to have six weeks of tennis, in fact, more tennis and events than ever before,” Tiley added.

The tournament will follow the bubble model where players are expected to follow the necessary pandemic protocol at all times.

“[Players] will have two weeks of quarantine that they will do in cities around Australia and for those two weeks we’re creating a bubble from the hotel to the courts in a training environment, not too dissimilar to what's happened with the AFL and NRL,” Tiley pointed out.

“By then, we expect the border to be completely open and we can move from city to city and then come down to Melbourne for the Australian Open for the last two weeks of January,” he added.