Federer has been making the most of his retirement in recent days, co-chairing the prestigious Met Gala on Monday before attending this weekend’s Miami GP. While the 41-year-old has been enjoying his post-playing career, his biggest rivals have been struggling with injuries.
Nadal has continued to raise fears over his French Open hopes after picking up a psoas injury at January’s Australian Open and has not played a match since. Despite seeing some “improvements” after changing his treatment plan recently, the world No 14 pulled out of next week’s Rome Masters.
Asked about the possibility of the 14-time French Open champion missing his favourite event, Federer told Sky Sports: “It would be brutal. That would be tough for tennis if Rafa wasn’t gonna be there.”
The 2009 French Open winner shared his hopes for Nadal to be at Roland Garros as he also brought up Djokovic’s recent struggles. The world No 1 has gone 2-2 so far in the clay season and was seen wearing elbow support in both Monte Carlo and Banja Luka.
The Serb then followed Nadal in pulling out of Madrid but is expected to be back in Rome next week. “I still hope so,” he said of the Spaniard’s chances.
“I saw he pulled out of Rome so I wish him the best and then obviously Novak also hasn’t played that much so I hope he is going to be strong as well.”
