Former World No. 1 Roger Federer stunned the tennis world when he announced that he would skip the rest of the season in order to fully rehabilitate after recent knee surgery.

Federer: Sacrificing Season for Proper Swan Song

Now in a new interview, Federer’s long-time coach Severin Luthi says that Federer is already hard at work to get ready for next year.

Speaking to Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger, Luthi said that the seven-time Wimbledon champion has not played any tennis since his semifinal match at Wimbledon where he lost to Milos Raonic.

“If Wimbledon had not meant so much, he probably would have not played there,” Luthi said per a translated version of the interview. 

Luthi also dispelled recent rumors that Federer’s fall in the semifinal exacerbated his knee issue, thus causing him to make his decision to end his season.

“No it has nothing to do with the fall. There he just had a moment of fear because he did not know what was going on and because he was not fully fit.” 

Luthi feels that Federer did not have enough time to fully recover after his knee surgery in February. The main goal now is for Federer to heal and train properly so he can be 100%.

“Fortunately, he does not need surgery, which is important. He now wants to fix any imbalance and come to the state where he can attack one hundred percent again. He now needs to replenish his reserves.”

Federer’s goal over the next five months is to completely heal then start training with his long time trainer Pierre Paganini. Federer will then start slowly playing tennis again.

Luthi, who is also Swiss Davis Cup captain, said that Federer was disappointed in not being able to compete at the Summer Games in Rio and the upcoming US Open, but did not want to compete if he could not play his best.

Luthi says that Federer gave no thoughts to retirement and is not daunted by the fact that he will likely drop out of the top 20 by the end of the year before he starts his comeback.

“It’s amazing how positive and inspiring it is. How happy he is training as much as he plays tournaments and as much as he travels around," Luthi added. “Of course you want to be ranked high but for him with his career, it is not as critical as it is with others. I am convinced that, if he is fully fit again, he can still beat anyone. The aim is to come back even stronger. He plays so well to win tournaments and to do that, he needs to beat everyone anyway.”