“I am not going to be a professional tennis player for the rest of my life. I am going to make the most of it.” It was with wry resignation that Roger Federer admitted this snippet, in the Q&A session he had after his live-streamed practice session in Dubai on 22 December. His admittance was the continuation of what had transpired this year, with a torn meniscus in his left knee destabilising his career and leaving nothing but uncertainty in its wake.

Until 2016, uncertainty was a word that scarcely came to be used in the same context as Roger Federer, in the near 14 years that he staked a claim of dominance in the tennis circuit. While, for any other player, or in any other circumstances, such uncertainty would have been considered as a rite of passage, indicating the changing times. However, the tumultuousness with which Federer’s year played out ensured that the incertitude around him wasn’t sidestepped as a cursory development, but accounted for as an unknown tangent to a hitherto well-known career timeline.

2017: New commencements

The latter, then, is as much for Federer himself as for tennis’ onlookers. Because for the first time in over a decade, the Basel native will be starting the new season without knowing where he stands and what he can come up with, against not only old rivals but also the fast-maturing younger generation.

Federer unhesitatingly attributed to this aspect as well, responding to one of his fans’ questions in his Q&A. “My goal for 2017 is to start strong next year at the beginning. Feel good about the body and then go deep in some tournaments, get a chance to win and play against the best there. That’s something I am looking forward to.”

And, at the Australian Open, he will get a chance to explore this potentiality to the fullest in what would be quite a challenging test. With him falling down the rankings’ perch, down to the 16th place, Federer would be playing one of the top four players as early as in the fourth round at Melbourne Park. Given that he has a lot of ground to cover, in his game and in matching up to the strides each took in 2016, the daunting nature of the likely match-up gets further substantiated. Moreover, since he will be defending 720 points from his semi-final finish in 2016, a loss would lead to Federer’s ranking sliding lower, lending perpetuity to the seeding scenarios for the tournaments thereafter.

Bridging the gap between the past and the future

While the prospect of Federer being the underdog is hard to fathom, or accept, it does imbue a colourful shade to the routineness that his ascendancy had come to be in the last handful of years. Though the 17-time Grand Slam champion hasn’t won a Major since hauling in a record-equalling seventh Wimbledon title in 2012, his consistency in reaching the penultimate rounds of almost all tournaments he played made it harder to look beyond him as a factor of continuity in the sport.

The soon-approaching season of 2017, thus, takes tennis back in time to when the 19-year-old Federer produced a superlative performance to mount an unsuspecting upset over the (then) defending champion Pete Sampras at the 2001 Wimbledon. Setting the precedent of a chain of excellence as he did in the years following that win, Federer will be keen to come up with few more such results in his favour in the new season, in spite of his couching expectations to flag it off. Doing so will also give the 35-year-old a renewed opportunity to prove that he still steers his career northward, regardless of injuries and forced hiatus.

Play

At a time, when some of his closest rivals are seeking to regain their perspectives that they seem to have lost in the fog of their successes this year, Federer’s comeback also reopens the perennial quest about determining tennis’ greatest of all time. And as an offshoot, the Swiss’ attempt to win his 18th Grand Slam. Answering a question posed in this regard, without dimming his optimism, Federer went on, “18th Slam? Please, yes. (But), it’s going to be tough. But I will give it a chance. I will give it all I have got.”

The difficulty notwithstanding, his truncated year gave Federer a timely respite in his repeated attempts to get to that number. Federer’s name did get camouflaged by the time the season ended. But despite the turnaround of his fortunes, 2016 did well to take attention off him towards the other players, thereby giving the Swiss No. 2 a chance to try and cross that elusive milepost anew.