Former World No. 1 tennis player, Roger Federer is the latest high profile athlete to get behind Tiger Woods and wish for his speedy return to golf.
Earlier in February, Woods withdrew from the Dubai Desert Classic ahead of the second round due to a back problem. Arguably the greatest golfer of all time, Tiger only returned to action in December after 15 months out due to two back procedures. On his return to golf, Tiger missed the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open and then followed with a opening round – 77 in Dubai before withdrawing.
Woods and Federer have both dominated their sports for years at a stretch and the fact that they share a long-standing friendship is not a surprise. Ahead of the start of the Dubai Tennis Championships, Federer spoke of his admiration for the 14-time major champion, Tiger Woods:
"I really wish, of course, he could come back and win again — I wouldn’t want anything else but that. It would be great," said Federer, as he compared their early careers, the struggles with injuries and the battles against a younger generation.
"I think you have to get used to the whole losing part a little bit," said Federer, as he talked about ageing on the Tour. "You don’t want to accept it like it’s become a normal trend, but it’s definitely something you have to learn how to deal with.
"For me it was normal growing up to lose, lose a lot sometimes. And then once I got into the whole winning bit, then the losing part was harder again because it’s like we are creatures of habit; we get used to it.
"But it’s a very fine line of accepting it and moving on, and just saying, ‘OK, I’ll go at it again next day’, and getting angry, sad, disappointed about it. I think everybody takes it different — that’s when the character comes into play. Also, the childhood I think.
"Tiger, for instance, had a very dominant childhood as well. Virtually everywhere he went, he won as a junior already. I didn’t have that. So for me, it was a bit of a different upbringing. I wasn’t supposed to be the next tennis superstar. He wanted to be the best golfer in the world and he achieved that. So yeah, quite a different life."
This is not the first time that one of them has come out and spoken publicly about the other’s achievements. Ahead of his Dubai Desert Classic week, one that unfortunately ended with a dissapointing withdrawal, Tiger Woods looked towards Roger Federer for inspiration after his remarkable Australian Open triumph:
“What Rog has done is he's been dominant for so long," Woods said at the Dubai Desert Classic’s opening press meet earlier in Feb. "To compete against (Novak Djokovic), to compete against Rafa, and now Andy (Murray) is playing well. He's had a litany of guys who have won slams. And no one wins slams at his age.
"And for him to come back, after having to take that much time off, and for him to get the timing, that's the hardest part."
"As you get older, you change your game and you do things slightly differently, and he did that," Woods said of Federer.
"Am I going to do that? Yeah, I'm not going to be hitting balls like some of these guys, 340, out there," Woods said. "I watched Dustin (Johnson) carry a ball last week when it was cold, wet and damp and carried it 335. Jason (Day) and I just looked at each other going, 'We don't have that.'"
After having underwent three back procedures, Woods is hoping to emulate Federer and get back to his best. This latest show of support has to be encouraging for Woods as he again finds his name on the injury table.
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