The curtain is about to rise on the new tennis season. Before attending the Australian Open, the first grand slam of the season, twelve world teams will play the 2021 ATP Cup. The event will be played from 1 to 5 February in Melbourne Park.
After a long wait, the formations of the nations that will take the field have been made official: compared to the past there is a change with only four players per nation, two mainly used for singles and two called primarily for doubles.
The best tennis players on the ATP circuit will participate in the event except Roger Federer, who was stopped due to an injury and also absent for the Australian Open.
Novak Djokovic’s Serbia defends the title and together with Rafael Nadal’s Spain and Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev’s Russia are on paper the favorite teams for the final victory.
While speaking to Forbes after being nominated for the International Tennis Hall of Fame’s Class of 2021, former World number 1 Lleyton Hewitt was asked about the toughest opponents he had faced during his career.
The two-time Grand Slam champion was swift in naming Roger Federer as ‘one of the toughest’ opponents.
Hewitt on his toughest opponent
“I got to play players across different generations, you could say,” Lleyton Hewitt said. “Obviously, Roger Federer was one of the toughest players (when) at his best. I was probably at my best at the time he was at his best, and he was awfully tough to play in big matches”.
Lleyton Hewitt also brought up Rafael Nadal, arguably Federer’s greatest rival, in the conversation. The Australian said that facing the Spaniard on the clay courts of Roland Garros was one of the most brutal tasks in tennis.
“Rafael Nadal, on clay at the French Open is probably one of the brutally toughest single matches you can come up against,” Hewitt continued. “I played him three or four times there. There’s a reason why he’s won 12 of them”.
Olympic Games come only once every four years; therefore, it’s next to impossible for the 39-year-old to participate in Paris. Notably, his part in Tokyo itself will mark his two decades of playing at the highest level in tennis.
“Big plan is to be there (Japan) for the Olympics. Let’s hope for the best for the Olympic Games coming to Tokyo next year, this is also one of my big goals. I really hope I can come back to Tokyo for that,” Federer said.
Winning a Gold medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics will mean the world to Federer and his fans. As a last hope, he will do all that is required out of him to be ready in time.
2021 is surely the last time Federer will compete for Switzerland in the Olympics.
