Former Wimbledon finalist Kevin Anderson is coming back to tennis, and he spoke with the ATP about how Roger Federer actually contributed to his decision to attempt a comeback.
Kevin Anderson had a fine career by the time he retired, but the South African felt he had more to give. Still, his body really didn't work with him in that regard, as he was dealing with pains and aches, which is an experience many tennis players can relate to.
Anderson ultimately hung it up after the 2022 Miami Open being unable to handle the challenges of playing tennis regularly. But, a year and a half later, the South African is coming back to the sport. He announced his return by accepting a wild card entry into the 2023 Newport Open
It's an event where he played some of his best tennis and more generally he always loved playing on grass. It's the last grass event of the year and a great chance to start his comeback off with a good showing. Before his return on Tuesday, July 18th, Anderson sat down with ATPTour.com to talk about how it all came to be.
I was hitting, just me and [my friend] just up and down the middle. And I was like, ‘Man, I'm feeling great. And at the end of practice, Roger Federer was actually in town, visiting. He came out to the courts and it was really a pretty profound experience. For me, I feel like looking back at my career, I was always pretty intimidated by some of the top guys.
I think coming from South Africa and not really being exposed to some of the best players in the world, I always was a little bit intimidated. And it was really interesting, because, in the first few minutes of our conversation, I felt that same sort of uneasiness, I felt very shifty.
Federer was in Africa earlier this year visiting Lesotho which is surrounded on all sides by the territory of South Africa. The Swiss Ace has a South African mother and is quite proud of that side of his family being a dedicated Springboks fan as well.
It was fascinating listening to him, arguably the best player of all time in terms of his ball striking, and just hearing the insights he had, it was a really cool experience. I didn't really put that together [in terms of coming back]. I think before that I was kind of thinking of, ‘Maybe I should come back.’
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