Australian Open 2020 news - Roger Federer says no to retirement, targets 2021 Melbourne return

Federer succumbed to a straight-sets loss to Novak Djokovic on Thursday in a match that saw the Swiss star struggle with his fitness throughout.

And talking in his press conference after the match, Federer explained just how difficult he found the experience.

"It was a nice entrance, a nice send-off, and in between is one to forget because you know you have a 3% chance to win,” Federer continued.

"At the end of the day I guess I'm very happy. I've got to be happy with what I achieved [in this tournament]. I think I overall played all right. I know I can play better. At the same time I also know I can play much worse.

"With no tournaments beforehand, I think it's a very, very good result."

Federer himself understandably underplayed the extent of his injury issues until after the loss to Djokovic, but he did then reveal that he considered withdrawing from the match were his fitness to deteriorate any further.

"I don’t think I would have gone on court if I had no chance to win. We saw I was still able to make a match out of it, and who knows how he feels as well.

"I did believe there was something that could be done today, and I felt it was probably not going to get worse."

The nature of the defeat to Djokovic threw more doubt over Federer’s chances of adding to his tally of 20 Grand Slam titles, but the man himself has confidence that he can win more.

"Yes, I do believe that," he replied when asked about his chances. "I think by having the year that I had last year, also with what I have in my game, how I'm playing, I do feel that, yeah."

And will he be back at the Australian Open? He told reporters that he has no intention of not playing in Melbourne again next year

"You never know what the future holds, especially at my age, but I’m confident," he said.

"I’m happy with how I’m feeling to be honest, got through a good nice training block, have no plans to retire. So from that standpoint we’ll see how the year goes and how everything is with the family and we’ll go from there. But of course I hope to be back."