Tennis Great, Federer May Play Till He Clocks 40 Years

Roger Federer rolled back the years by winning the Australian Open last month, and now he is signalling that he could be playing until close to his 40th birthday.

The 18-times Grand Slam champion revealed on Tuesday that he has signed a three-year contract to play in his hometown ATP event, the Swiss Indoors, which takes place every October in Basel.

By pledging his participation until 2019, Federer is outlining plans to play until he is at least 38 – a grand old age even at a time when tennis players are enjoying greater longevity than ever.

Such is his enormous drawing power that tennis chiefs will be delighted that he appears to have no wish to retire.

Immediately after winning in Melbourne he indicated that he might not return, saying: ‘I hope to see you next year. If not, this was a wonderful run here and I can’t be more happy to have won here tonight.’

However he swiftly rowed back on that later and is intent on playing a near full schedule this season.

He has certainly been busy in the past week. He was photographed spending time with adventurer Bear Grylls in the mountains and on Monday he travelled to Prague for the launch of the Laver Cup, the Europe v Rest of the World team event that his management company is promoting in September.

Meanwhile, both Laura Robson and Heather Watson are on the lookout for new coaches again after both playing a part in Britain’s progress in the Fed Cup zonal rounds last week.

Robson is having a trial with former German player Dieter Kindlmann after a spell basing herself at the JTC coaching operation in Chiswick.

Kindlmann is a close associate of Maria Sharapova’s coach Sven Groenefeld and spent three years as the Russian’s hitting partner prior to her doping ban a year ago.

Watson had a brief time working with South African John Laffnie De Jager but restrictions on his travel time mean that she is now looking elsewhere.