Roger Federer won’t make decision on Olympic Games participation until AFTER Wimbledon

Roger Federer has revealed he will wait until after Wimbledon before he makes a decision on whether he will take part in this summer’s Olympic Games.

The Swiss’ great rival Rafael Nadal announced just last week that he would not be competing at the All England Club or in Tokyo this summer, saying he needed to ‘recuperate after a long clay-court season’.

There are just 12 days between the men’s singles final at Wimbledon – which Federer has won eight times – on 11 July and the start of the Games in Japan next month on 23 July.

Roger Federer won’t make a decision on his participation in the Olympics until after Wimbledon

The Swiss’ great rival Rafael Nadal (R) has already pulled out of Wimbledon and Tokyo 2020

And Federer – who won singles silver at London 2012 after losing to Andy Murray in the final – admitted that while he still intends to participate in the latest Games, his final decision will come down to how his 39-year-old body feels after Wimbledon. 

‘It’s still my intention to go to the Olympic Games,’ the 20-time Grand Slam champion said.

‘But we will reassess everything after Wimbledon. It is my goal to play as much tournaments as possible. But it really depends on results and how the body is feeling.

‘I wish I could tell you more. At the moment things are not as simple as in the past. With age, we have to be more selective, I can’t play it all.

Federer has never won an Olympic singles gold medal, losing to Andy Murray in the final in 2012

‘I would like to go but we decided just to get through Wimbledon and see where we go from there.’

Federer did pull out of the 2016 Olympics in Rio to fully recover from a knee injury he suffered in a semi-final defeat at Wimbledon that year.

The Swiss however does have an Olympic gold medal to his name, winning the men’s doubles with Stan Wawrinka in Beijing 13 years ago.

Federer could however only reach the quarterfinals in the singles in 2008, which is the same stage he fell at in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.

But the 39-year-old did win doubles gold four years earlier in Beijing with Stan Wawrinka 

The Swiss’ only other appearance at a Games came back in 2004 in Athens, when he exited both the men’s singles and doubles on the same day.

First he fell in the second round to Tomas Berdych, at the time ranked just 79 in the world, before losing against Indian doubles specialists Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi just hours later with partner Yves Allegro.

Federer meanwhile faces faces Adrian Mannarino in the first round of this year’s Wimbledon and is on the opposite side of the draw to Novak Djokovic, who defeated him in the 2019 final.

Federer has won Wimbledon eight times and is on the opposite side of the draw to Novak Djokovic (right)