In recent times several over 30 years old top players like took a long break from tennis in order to recover from injuries. In 2016, Federer stopped competing for six months due to a knee and back injuries.
Once he came back to play, he won two Grand Slam titles in the same year. Tomas Berdych is making a great return too, having reached the Doha Open final and Australian Open third round so far. Federer said: I think every sport has somewhat of an offseason.
We have two but you cant count it like that. Lets not talk scheduling during this tournament. Theres no point, no perfect solution there too. What I think is good about our sport is it is sort of going all year round.
If you do get injured, you can jump back into it and you dont have to wait another five months because there is no tournament going on. I think there is very much positives about our long schedule that we have. I think when you have been on the tour like Berdych and myself, played full seasons for many, many years, and you take a long break off Rafa has had them, injuries, mostly they come through injuries naturally.
I think it just gives the body a chance to sort of heal itself and maybe also the mind to take a step back. And when you come back to the tour, you see the guys and you step in the press room, the way you deal with, I dont know, you know, the pressure, all of a sudden you see things a bit either more clear or more relaxed instead of, you know, there are so many trees that you cant see anymore where youre at.
I think all of a sudden its much more clear, and I hope that Tomas is there now, and I think thats maybe also why hes playing well. You know, minor tweaks and adjustments can make a big difference at the end of the day in our sport.
The margins are super slim. So it will be interesting to follow those guys who do tend to take a bigger break. Its just hard because your ranking is always because we have a one-year rolling ranking, you know how it is, its just a tough one because your ranking is going to drop.
And if you dont play well when you do come back, then youll be in no mans land in the ranking and pay the price dearly for it. Can you always come back to the top 10 or 20? Its not always a guarantee. You have to be very confident in maybe making that decision.
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