Roger Federer says his thoughts have turned towards achieving his dream of playing in South Africa next week. Federer’s hopes of winning a 21st Grand Slam title were ended on Thursday when he was beaten by Novak Djokovic.
On February 7, Federer and Nadal are expected to set the record for the highest attendance at a tennis match will play in an exhibition in Cape Town.
And it will allow Federer to play in the home country of his mother Lynette for the first time.
Federer will now spend the next week looking to get fit after struggling with an upper leg injury in Melbourne.
But the Swiss is confident of being fit and is excited to arrive in South Africa.
He said: “Yeah, I mean, look, number one I’m very happy. Obviously this Match for Africa is finally happening.
“It’s been a dream of mine for many, many years. It’s unfortunate that it’s taken this long. You know how it is. Life on tour sometimes is what it is.
“I couldn’t be more excited now that it’s actually really happening. I hope I’m going to be really fine to play. I believe I am, but we’ll see.
“Also that Rafa is willing to do it is exciting, of course, to say the least. I know my parents are very happy, very proud as well. I’m sure it’s going to be very, very special for me on many levels to play there.
“Besides, we’re going to have so many people there, as well. We’ll really try to make it accessible for a lot of people to come. Not just make it a high-end, just to wealthy, try to print money.
“That was never the idea. The idea was to have a fun, fun evening for everybody. I think we’re going to be able to achieve that.”
Speaking after his match with Djokovic, Federer said he was hopeful of being 100 per cent by Dubai, where he is due to play next month.
He said: “To be honest, I hope I’m somewhat fine for South Africa. That’s something I think I can somewhat control.
“But then, of course, you want to be 100% to be able to train again, then get ready for hopefully Dubai.
“Right now it’s only guessing. I’m very happy that I don’t feel any worse than when I started. That’s for me super encouraging.
“Yeah, so I think we’ll go from there and we’ll see if I need to do another scan or not.”
