Two-time Roland Garros runner-up Robin Soderling of Sweden announced that he won’t be participating at this year’s French Open, saying that he’s not yet fit to return to action yet due to his continuing battle with mononucleosis. However, he did announce via his Twitter account that he and fiancée Jenni will become parents later this year.
“I think even if I was 100 per cent healthy tomorrow, I still need some time to train and get back in shape. I don’t know how long that will be, but maybe at least a few months,” Soderling said in an interview by ATP World Tour.
“Then it is a question of when I can fully start to train again. I don’t know if that will be one month or one year. When I come back, it will take some time to get into shape again. I don’t see the point in training for one week and then going to try and play a match again. The most important thing is that I’m feeling better and better. It’s very slow. Now, I feel pretty good during the days. But training, more intense training, my body cannot take. I get too tired,” he added.
The former world number four player said that there’s no concrete timetable for his return.
“The doctors I’ve been talking to have been saying I will get well, but that it can take a long time. I have to hope for getting better sooner than later,” said Soderling.
“The last couple of months I haven’t done much hitting at all. I made a mistake a couple times coming back too soon in the fall and had some setbacks. I’m a little bit scared of doing too much and training too hard. I’m trying to gradually step it up and do more and more, but it’s still pretty far from 100 per cent,” he added.
Soderling’s last appearance at the ATP Tour was at the SkiStar Swedish Open where he captured his 10th career title by beating world number six David Ferrer in the final.
