Roger Federer tweaked his back during his win over Ivan Dodig at Indian Wells, but says he thinks he’ll be fine, and adds that these types of injuries are common on the tour.
Federer recalled when he pulled out of his quarterfinal match against James Blake with a back injury at the 2008 Paris Masters, which was the first time he had pulled out prior to match after he had already began playing an event.
“There things weren’t good at all,” he said. “That was as extreme, I think, as it gets. Ever since I have been doing a lot of back exercises, making sure I try everything I can to make sure it strengthened and less vulnerable to go bad.”
“I have even had a bad back, sometimes when I was younger just because I wasn’t strong enough yet. I think every player can talk about having had a bad back. I think almost every person has. So for me, it’s been actually pretty good overall if I think about it. And if it hurts me for an evening or one-and-a-half days or something and I can still play with the pain, that’s okay. I hurt it in Wimbledon against [Xavier] Malisse and came out firing against Youzhny the next round. So for me I just got to deal with it.”