Roger Federer’s 2020 Withdrawal ‘Not A Good Sign’ Says Justine Henin

The tennis season may be on hold due to the global pandemic but that hasn’t stopped Roger Federer from making the headlines in the sporting world. With everything that is happening, Federer recently shared that he will withdraw the 2020 campaign due to his injury.

It is known that Federer is one of the greatest players of all time when it comes to the sport. The achievements of the Swiss legend have surpassed the expectations of everyone. While the 38-year-old has accomplished so much in his career, he’s still known to be one of the best.

But recent developments have taken out the 20-time Grand Slam champion regarding his earlier arthroscopic surgery. Earlier this year, Federer announced that he would be missing a good portion of the year to give time to rehabilitate his knee. The initial timetable of his return was slated during the grass-court season just in time for Wimbledon had it not gotten canceled.

Given the global pandemic and everything that has been going on, Federer recently announced that he would be sitting out the entire year to fully recover.

While it’s considered as a wise move for Federer to return 100% healthy, it can also be viewed as a big setback for the all-time great. Per seven-time Grand Slam winner Justine Henin, she believes that Federer is in a difficult situation.

"Of course it is not a good sign that he now has to recover for a long time after that operation on his knee. He is also of a certain age,” she said by way of Tennis World USA.

The 20 majors Federer has won may seem untouchable but Nadal has slowly caught up. The left-handed Spaniard has tallied a total of 19 Grand Slams and is in position to tie Federer as the best of all time.

Despite this, Henin also believes that if there’s one person who can bounce back from a setback like this, it’s definitely Federer.

“But it has been predicted a few times that it is over for him and yet he surprises us,” Henin continued.

The big three of Federer, Nadal and Novak Djokovic have dominated the past decade by winning all major titles since 2016. It’s important to note that the last Grand Slam Federer won was the Australian Open in 2018.

It will be interesting to see how tennis bounces back after this global pandemic and how Federer’s performance will look like when he returns from his injury.