Federer’s illness explains bad form
Swiss tennis star Roger Federer says he has been trying to get back on track following a bout of mononucleosis - glandular fever - at the start of the season.
The world number one lost to eventual champion Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open semi-finals in January and crashed out in the first round of the Dubai Tennis Championships last week.
Federer had not played between the Australian Open and the Dubai game, which he lost to Andy Murray. It is the first time since 2004 that he has gone out in the first round of a tournament.
The tennis player’s agent, Tony Godsick, said that Federer was diagnosed with mononucleosis – a virus whose symptoms include fever, sore throat, headaches and fatigue – last month.
“He doesn’t want to make any excuses and take anything away from anybody. In hindsight had [his doctors] known he had mono, they wouldn’t have let him play,” Godick was quoted on the AP news agency as saying.
Federer told The New York Times in an interview posted on its website on Friday that the illness had affected his practising and that he had lost a lot of his fitness.
The Swiss is now over the virus and will play Pete Sampras in an exhibition match at Madison Square Garden, in New York, on Monday night. Federer has 12 Grand Slam titles, two away from Sampras’ own career record.
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