By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday March 11, 2021
Back-to-back weeks of ATP-level competition is a bit too much for Roger Federer at this stage of his comeback. The Swiss informed the public that he has pulled out of next week’s Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in order to focus more on practice.
Federer recently pulled out of the Miami Open, so unless he changes his mind and takes a late wild card there, he’ll likely make his return to the tour at some point in the spring.
Nevertheless it was a productive week in Dubai for the 20-time major champion. He won his first match in over a year, defeating Dan Evans in second-round action, before falling to Nikoloz Basilashvili in quarterfinal action on Thursday. After that match Federer hinted that he was experiencing more shoulder soreness than he expected.
“The whole shoulder is really, I feel the muscle pain around that,” Federer said. “I didn't expect it to be honest here in the shoulder because I have been serving the whole time, but that comes I think with the pressure and just, you know, in matches you just go that extra percent, 5 percent? I don't know what it is.”
Federer also said that he would likely need to play some matches on clay in order to get his game back to 100 percent ahead of Wimbledon.
“I think matches are important,” he said. “What comes before the grass courts are the clay courts. So from that standpoint, I have no choice but to play on clay if I want to play matches.
“I assume I will play some clay, you know. The question is what. We have a vague idea, but we said let's wait for Doha and potentially Dubai to potentially make any decisions for that, and fitness comes first and then we'll see what comes after. At the end everything is geared towards the grass. So whatever makes me be 100 percent there, I will do.”