Roger Federer will miss the Rio Olympics, along with the rest of the tennis season, because he needs "more extensive rehabilitation" after he had knee surgery aimed at prolonging his career earlier this year.
The Swiss player won doubles gold in Beijing in 2008 but lost out to Britain’s Andy Murray in the 2012 singles final and, at the age of 34, is now unlikely to add singles Olympic gold to his 17 grand slam singles victories. He will also miss the U.S. Open at the end of August.
Last month he described how "one stupid move" sparked a chain of bad luck - which resulted in left knee surgery in February and sitting out the French Open with a back injury - culminating in Tuesday's decision to end his wretched season.
"I'm extremely disappointed to announce that I will not be able to represent Switzerland at the Olympic Games in Rio and that I will also miss the remainder of the season," he said on his Facebook page.
"Considering all options after consulting with my doctors and my team, I have made the very difficult decision to call an end to my 2016 season as I need more extensive rehabilitation following my knee surgery earlier this year.
"The doctors advised that if I want to play on the ATP World Tour injury free for another few years, as I intend to do, I must give both my knee and body the proper time to fully recover. It is tough to miss the rest of the year."
Unlike long-term rival Rafael Nadal, Federer has largely managed to avoid injury throughout his career but this complaint, sustained while running a bath for his twin daughters following his Australian Open semi-final loss, will mean he’ll go a whole season without a title for the first time since 2000.
"The silver lining is that this experience has made me realise how lucky I have been throughout my career with very few injuries," said Federer.
"The love I have for tennis, the competition, tournaments and... the fans remains intact. I am as motivated as ever and plan to put all my energy towards coming back strong, healthy and in shape to play attacking tennis in 2017."
