Roger Federer has ruled out a dream Olympic match-up with Martina Hingis at London 2012.
The six-time Wimbledon champion admits it is a "once in a lifetime"
opportunity to play in the Olympics at the All England Club, where he
will look to add Olympic gold to his already-impressive CV.
Federer boasts a record 16 grand slams and is one of only seven men to
have won all four majors, but an Olympic singles title has thus far
eluded him. He fell to Tomas Berdych in the second round at Athens in
2004, and the quarter-finals to James Blake in Beijing, although he did
go on to win doubles gold with Stanislas Wawrinka.
In what could be his final attempt to seal the career Golden Slam
(Federer will turn 31 during this summer's Games), Federer admits it is
made all the more special by the location.
"It's an amazing once in a lifetime experience and may never come again in our lifetimes," Federer told Gazzetta dello Sport.
"It's a big, big milestone for tennis at the Olympics for all players
of my generation. It will be a very, very big and special atmosphere
there, I'm really looking forward to it and I hope I can make a big
result there."
Hingis, who won her first grand slam at the age of 15 at Wimbledon with
Helena Sukova, won five majors and spent 209 weeks as world No. 1.
Though only a year older than Federer, Hingis had won all five of her
singles titles before Federer won his first in 2003, and has not played
since 2007. However, she has played exhibition doubles at Wimbledon for
the past two years, with Anna Kournikova in 2010 and Lindsay Davenport
last year.
But despite rumours that the pair, who won the Hopman Cup for Switzerland in 2001, could be set for an Olympic reunion for the mixed doubles this summer, Federer revealed it was Hingis who turned down his invitation.
"The only partner I could imagine myself playing with was Martina
because she's been such an amazing player from such a young age,"
Federer said. "She's only one year older than me and in some ways I
learnt so much from her about how to play at the highest level for so
long. She drove me and inspired me as well.
"I spoke with Martina on the phone and she said, 'I don't think we
should do it, I would love to do it but you should concentrate on the
singles and doubles. It would be crazy, I wouldn't do it'. So I said,
'OK, we don't do it, we're both very happy, you're happy in retirement
and I'm happy on court'. It was a good conversation, in a way I'm
disappointed but it was the smart decision to make."
ESPN.co.uk
It's really too bad, but I think Martina is completely right (he should concentrate on singles especially). Would have been awesome to see them play together though.
It's nice to know Martina inspired him (I'm guessing they both have a mutual admiration for one another). Always nice when a player of Federer's statue reminds people of just how great Martina was.
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