Roger Federer will decide at the ‘last moment’ whether he will play at Laver Cup this weekend
Roger Federer’s fitness coach Pierre Paganini believes it will come down to a last-minute decision whether the Swiss will play at the Laver Cup this weekend.
Last week, Federer announced that he would be retiring from professional tennis and that the Laver Cup would be his last event. But concerns over the 41-year-old's physical health threaten to deny him the chance to play his last match as part of Team Europe, as they take on Team World at London’s O2 Arena.
‘’He will probably decide that at the last moment,’’ Paganini told Swiss newspaper Blick. ‘’He’s trained to have as much information as possible about whether it’s a good idea or not.’’
Paganini also explained that Federer’s much deliberated decision to retire came after he realised he was having to put more and more effort in for little gain.
Since July, when he started combining the different training elements, he has noticed that he has to make more and more detours and put in extra effort," Paganini said.
"He had to make greater efforts for relatively low intensity.
‘’I think it's a smart decision. It's not just about the knee. Roger has played a lot of matches in his career and put his body under extreme strain."
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Severin Luthi, another of Federer’s coaches, also explained that, while his participation is not set in stone, Federer has been training hard for the event and it is his main goal to play at least one match for Team Europe.
“It's not definitive yet but he trained hard last week and is training again this week,’’ Luthi told Blick.
"His aim is to play something - whether it's singles or doubles we'll have to see, but his aim is still to play at the Laver Cup - definitely. We have three hours in the morning. Trained and in the afternoon another two hours of training, I want to do my job well there.’’
Should everything go according to plan, Federer will join forces with Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray this weekend as tennis fans all around the world eagerly await the reunion of the Big Four.
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