Roger Federer's back injury feeling 'much, much better' ahead of US Open and world No 1 attempt

The 36-year-old is looking for his third Grand Slam of the year

Federer could become world No 1 at Flushing Meadows (Getty)

Roger Federer is feeling “much, much better” than he was when he pulled out of last week’s Cincinnati Masters with a back problem and says he is excited at the prospect of attempting to win his third Grand Slam title of the year at next week’s US Open.

Federer, who was speaking here after an announcement of the teams for next month’s inaugural Laver Cup in Prague, was troubled by a back problem when he lost to Alexander Zverev in the final of the Montreal Masters 10 days ago. He has had back problems in the past and when he subsequently withdrew from the Cincinnati tournament there were concerns about his participation here.

“I’ve been out on the practice courts and I’m feeling much, much better than I was a week ago,” Federer said when asked about his fitness going into next week’s tournament at Flushing Meadows. “That’s very encouraging for me ahead of New York. I love playing here, the court surface suits me well.”

Victory in the year's concluding Grand Slam event would crown a remarkable season for Federer, who took off the last six months of 2016 after being troubled by a knee injury. He has won both the Australian Open and Wimbledon and, with no ranking points to defend between now and the end of the year, could soon be challenging for the world No 1 position, which Rafael Nadal took from Andy Murray this week.

“Other than the back issue I’m coming in as good as I could possibly feel because I’ve played extremely well and I’ve not over-played,” Federer said. “I don’t think I’ve ever had that combination in the way that I’ve had it this year. I didn’t play any of the clay-court season and so I had 10 weeks off. I hoped that would pay off in the grass-court season and it did.”

The Laver Cup, which will be an annual event, is being promoted as the sport’s version of the Ryder Cup. It will be contested in Prague from September 22-24 and will feature two six-man teams. Bjorn Borg will captain the Europe team and John McEnroe will lead their Rest of the World opponents.


 Federer lost the Montreal Masters to Zverev 10 days ago 
 (Getty)

Federer revealed that the final member of the Europe team will be Zverev, who has made a major breakthrough this year, winning two Masters Series titles. The world No 6, who will be one of the favourites when competition begins here on Monday, joins a formidable line-up alongside Federer, Nadal, Marin Cilic, Dominic Thiem and Tomas Berdych.

McEnroe named his final two choices when he said that Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro and the young Canadian Denis Shapovalov would be joining Milos Raonic, John Isner, Jack Sock and Sam Querrey.

With so many top players suffering serious injuries recently – Novak Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka and Kei Nishikori are all out for the rest of the season while Murray was one of seven top 10 players who missed Cincinnati – Federer was asked whether the sport needed another competition like the Laver Cup.

“You can always argue it either way,” the world No 3 said. “I think it is severe at the moment, what’s going on with injuries, no doubt about it. Those injuries aren’t just like little niggling injuries that trouble you for just three days here or there or even a couple of weeks. We’ve seen some big ones – three months, six months – and affecting multiple players.

“But I don’t think an event lasting three days in Prague is going to throw everything overboard and make players totally over-played. The system of the Laver Cup is not trying to do that, to push players to the limit mentally and physically. It’s actually guys coming together, playing for the right reasons, and spending a cool week together, doing their absolute best and just having a good time really.

“But the players always have to look at themselves in the mirror and ask themselves the question: what’s enough and what is too much? That applies to both the match courts and the practice courts.”