Roger Federer, 45: ‘I have had five operations. I deserve to rest’

Roger Federer has traded tennis rivalry for golf competition with Rafael Nadal, but the Swiss legend says Nadal remains so far ahead that their new contest barely qualifies as one.

“I have had five operations. I deserve to rest; now I compete by playing golf with Rafa Nadal, but he is so far above me that there is still no rivalry,” Federer said in a recent interview with Carson Daly for NBC’s TODAY in Newport, where he entered the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

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I have had five operations. I deserve to rest; now I compete by playing golf with Rafa Nadal, but he is so far above me that there is still no rivalry.

Federer played until almost 40 before his body set the limit. He underwent surgery on his left knee in 2016 and three more procedures on his right knee between 2020 and 2021, plus another operation to correct fluid. Soon after his final meniscus and cartilage procedure, he announced his retirement in 2022 at the Laver Cup in London, sharing an emotional doubles match with his rival and friend Nadal.

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I am not the type of person who retires and then comes back.

He acknowledges that a comeback might have tempted him if he had remained fully fit. But he says he never seriously questioned the decision. “I am not the type of person who retires and then comes back,” he said. Injuries, he added, became part of what he learned about returning after defeat and after surgery.

Federer’s record leaves him among the sport’s greatest players: eight Wimbledon titles, six Australian Opens, five US Opens and the 2009 French Open, completing the career Grand Slam. At 45, married to Mirka Vavrinec and the father of four, he follows Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner under pressure and remembers his own time in that arena. “I am happy that I was able to live that life,” he said. He still regularly returns to Wimbledon, but no longer asks his five-times-operated knee to begin again.

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I am happy that I was able to live that life.