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For Roger Federer it was the first tournament participation since the Australian Open 2020
Photo: Mohamed Farag / Getty Images
For Grand Slam record champion Roger Federer, the dream of the title burst when he made his comeback on the tennis tour.
The 39-year-old Swiss, who was out for around 13 months after two knee operations, was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the ATP tournament in Doha.
Federer lost to Nikolos Bassilaschwili 6: 3, 1: 6, 5: 7, the Georgian will now face Taylor Fritz in the semifinals.
On Wednesday, the 20-time major winner Federer made his successful comeback and defeated the British Daniel Evans in three sets.
After two operations, the knee held even under competition stress, but it was not enough for the jump to the semi-finals.
His last match was the semi-final defeat against Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open 2020.
After his opening success in Doha, the sixth in the world ranked “really satisfied” that he was “really explosive”.
But Federer visibly had to fight against Bassilashvili, the world ranking 42 already performed in the first set.
strong resistance from Georgia.
Bassilashvili earned three breakballs, but Federer held his serve.
The Swiss did not succeed in the second round right from the start, and Bassilashvili now turned it up.
In less than half an hour he managed to equalize the sentences, then both initially acted at eye level - and Federer looked increasingly tired.
In spite of everything, he even earned a match point, but a little later his opponent turned his third match point after 1:50 hours.
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