Roger Federer sinks to all-time career low after missing Wimbledon 2022

His prolonged struggle with knee injury saw Roger Federer miss the Wimbledon Championships for the very first time in his career. He had won the Junior title in 1998 and made his men’s singles main draw debut at the Wimbledon the following year and has since continued his annual visit to the All England Club where he won an Open Era record of eight of his 20 Grand Slam titles. However, after missing the 2022 Wimbledon tournament Federer sank to an all-time low in his career.

It was at the SW19 that Federer had last made his official appearance in a tennis match. He had lost to Hubert Hurkacz in the quarterfinal in straight sets. Following the heartbreaking loss, Federer underwent a knee treatment that kept him away from ATP tour for exactly a year.

On Monday, ATP released the fresh rankings update and Federer, for the first time in his career, dropped outside the top 1000.

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Back in 1997, 16-year-old Federer had earned his place in the ATP rankings for the first time in his career. Two years later he made the top 100 and then rose to the top spot in 2004 following his memorable win at the Australian Open over Marat Safin. However, with Federer out of action for a year, the 600 points that he had earned in 2019 has expired and the Swiss maestro has become an unranked player.

Federer is however slated to return to tour later in September in Laver Cup before playing the Swiss Indoors. And earlier this week, on his return to Wimbledon for the celebration of 100 years of Centre Court, he revealed his Wimbledon plan for 2023.

“I hope I can come back one more time,” said the 20-time Grand Slam winner. I’ve missed it here. I knew walking out here last year, it was going to be a tough later in September ahead,” Federer said.

Besides Federer, Novak Djokovic, who claimed his seventh Wimbledon crown after successfully defending the title for the fourth time in a row, hit a four-year low as he slipped to the seventh spot in ATP rankings.

Wimbledon 2022 had no rankings points on offer following their ban on participation of Russian and Belarusian players. It was a step taken by ATP and WTA following their announcement.