Roger Federer, Serena Williams Confirmed For 2021 Australian Open

The end of 2020 can’t come soon enough.

And now one more reason to look forward to 2021 is the Australian Open, where both Roger Federer and Serena Williams will return to the tennis court.

Both legends recently celebrated their 39th birthday and will turn 40 in 2021.

“Roger this morning just confirmed publicly, Roger Federer, that he’ll be here,” Tennis Australia boss Craig said per nine.com.eu.

“Serena Williams will be here, obviously trying to get Margaret Court’s record. We’re excited about the players that will be here and about what we’ll put on.”

Federer’s last tour-level match came in January when he lost in the Australian Open semifinals to Novak Djokovic.

The 20-time Grand Slam champion then beat rival Rafael Nadal in a charity match in South Africa in February.

In June, he announced he would be out of action for the rest of the 2020 season due to a knee injury.

Nadal can tie Federer’s men’s record of 20 majors by winning his 13th Grand Slam title on Sunday, while Djokovic hopes to capture his 18th major crown then.

Williams, meantime, will return to Melbourne still trying to tie Court’s all-time record of 24 major titles. Serena is 0-4 in Grand Slam finals since becoming a mother.

After losing in the semifinals of the U.S. Open last month to Victoria Azarenka, Williams withdrew ahead of her second-round match at the French Open with an Achilles injury.

Tiley hopes for crowds of between 25 and 50 per cent of capacity at the Australian Open, and said he expects all the top players to attend the January tournament.

“We will [have them] … we’ve been talking to them every single week,” Tiley said.