After more than a year away from the court tennis fans will finally get to see Roger Federer in action when he makes his long-awaited return with the racket in Doha.

The last time the Swiss Superstar stepped out on a tennis court was on the 20^th of January 2020 where he lost to one of his arch rivals Novak Djokovic in the semis of the Australian Open.

He later underwent surgery on an injured knee which was not a success before having a second operation.

It has been a long a rough rehabilitation but finally he seems to be close to match fitness as he has been spotted moving freely on the training courts in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, Federer’s fitness coach has commented that training has been going “very well,” but his actual fitness remains to be seen as he has never been inactive for so long and muscles needed rebuilding.

Where will he be playing?

Federer’s long-awaited return will be in Doha, Qatar at an ATP 250 event which will see the likes of Dominic Thiem, Andrey Rublev, Gael Monfils and David Goffin competing among others.

It looks like his comeback will be a tentative, however, as it was announced that he will be skipping the Miami masters along with the clay court season to concentrate on training and re-building his form.

And if his body responds, he might play in Dubai the following week and then return once again in Halle on Grass ahead of Wimbledon.

What has happened since?

It has not been a pleasant year due to the pandemic as the tour was put on hold for months and Wimbledon was cancelled, whilst the French Open was pushed back to after the US Open.

In the meantime, we saw a new winner of a Grand Slam after the dominance of the so-called “Big 3” with Dominic Thiem winning the US Open.

Rafa Nadal unsurprisingly won another French Open bringing his tally to 13 and he joined Roger Federer with a total of 20 Grand Slams.

Novak Djokovic also added another Grand Slam to his trophy case winning the most recent Australian Open and bringing his total Grand Slam Tally to 18 and also solidifying many claims that he is now the greatest tennis player of all time, but is he?

Who is the GOAT?

With Novak Djokovic winning another Grand Slam in such a dominant manner and with the long awaited Roger Federer return, the long debate of his the greatest is bound to be at the centre of many discussions.

There are a lot of diverse arguments to solidify claims from all camps of the “Big 3,” such as the one where Federer and Nadal have more grand slams than Djokovic and hence they are still the greatest.

Other arguments solidify claims that Djokovic is the greatest due to the head-to-head record that he has both against Rafa and Roger (Djokovic leads 27-23 vs Federer and 29-27 vs Nadal) and also due to the fact that he is the youngest out of the trio and is bound to surpass all records.

But on the other hand, Roger Federer has proved that he can compete against anyone even as he approaches the tender age of 40 as he did in the 2019 Wimbledon Final where he had match points against Nole in the Final.

The question is, at the age of 39, will he be able to compete with the best once more?

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