Most of us thought Roger Federer’s decision about skipping Rogers Cup at Toronto was to buy more practice time for the upcoming Rio Olympics. But the Swiss Maestro had other problems, which he couldn’t possibly share with everybody, when he announced about his withdrawal from Rogers Cup. On Tuesday afternoon, however, he wrote on his Facebook page that he will skip not only the Rio Games but he would not be able to play any more matches in the 2016 tennis season. The news spread like wildfire and affected Federer’s closest rivals and fellow tennis players. When Federer’s announcement was picked up by his millions of Facebook followers, Frenchman Gael Monfils was in the middle of his first-round match with Portugal’s Joao Sousa at Toronto and obviously he couldn’t have been privy to Federer’s decision in the social media website. But Monfils was quite shocked to know about it and looked lost for words, when asked for about it. Monfils wasn’t alone. Millions of Federer fans around the world were similarly shocked by the seemingly unbelievable disclosure. Last week’s Citi Open champion Monfils said that he didn’t know about it but said he felt sorry to hear about Federer’s decision. Like many other fellow tennis players and fans around the world, Monfils also loves Roger Federer and told the interviewer exactly that. Nothing could have come as a more surprising new item in the midst of this year’s Rogers Cup.
The 17-time Grand Slam champion Federer chose Facebook to share the news with the world about his decision to stay away from tennis action for the remainder of the 2016 tennis season. That includes the upcoming Rio Olympic Games and the US Open in New York. Federer wrote on his Facebook page that due to the knee injury, he suffered early this year, he would not only be missing the upcoming Rio Olympics, but the entire part of the current tennis season. The tennis superstar went on to add that he had considered every option after due consultations with his doctors and his coaching team. In one of the most difficult decisions that Federer ever made in his entire life, he chose to skip the prestigious Olympic Games. Federer further added that he needed a more extensive rehabilitation after his knee surgery and his doctors advised him to have a long break from playing tennis if he were to continue playing on ATP World Tour free of injury for some more years. Since Federer still considers himself as one of the top competitors in tennis, he needs to give both his knee and the body full time to recover completely. However, to Federer’s worldwide tennis followers, this piece of news was not palatable. They all wanted the Rio Olympic gold around the neck of world’s most loved tennis player.
Besides Monfils, many other tennis stars expressed their reactions to Federer’s decision of winding up on the ongoing tennis season. Fellow Swiss Stan Wawrinka, who was to be the likely doubles partner for Federer in the 2016 Rio Games, said it would be a huge loss for Switzerland. Wawrinka also said that while it would be a loss for the ATP world tour, the biggest emotional sufferer would be Federer himself. Wawrinka added that like everybody, he was also very sad because Federer was pulling out of Rio. The Swiss no.2 also said that Federer would be missed by not only his fans but since his greatness also touches his fellow tennis players, even if he is playing against them at times, his absence from tennis will also affect fellow players alike. There is no announcement yet from Switzerland about Federer’s replacement.
