Federer says yes to Hingis for mixed doubles at the Olympics

After wrestling for several months with whether or not to play mixed doubles at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Roger Federer finally has an answer: yes.

Federer reportedly announced on Sunday that he will team up with fellow Swiss Martin Hingis at next summer’s games, according to Switzerland’s Le Matin Dimanche. “Federer will play with Hingis,” the report said. “It’s decided.”

Hingis had asked Federer this summer, but the 34-year-old had to give the proposition some heavy thought given the workload that it requires.

“She has approached me and I’ve said I’ll give it some thought,” Federer had said. “The problem is I don’t know how to play singles,  doubles, and mixed within an eight-day period. If I try to win them all, it’s like 15 matches in eight days. You tell me how that works. I don’t know, I don’t.

“So I have to figure out things and what my priority is at the end of the day. Martina has done a lot for tennis in Switzerland and she was, I guess, to some extent a hero of mine. Seeing her on the tour basically when I was not knowing what I was doing on the tennis court and she was already winning Wimbledon and all those things, it was unbelievable to watch so I’ll obviously give it some thought because I have a lot of respect for her.”

Hingis also had Stan Wawrinka as a backup plan in case Federer said no.

“Well, Hingis asked Roger first,” Wawrinka commented earlier this year. “Roger took some time to answer, so she asked me. I want to see what Roger says since she asked Roger first. I don’t want to say yes now.”

Federer and Wawrinka teamed up to capture gold in men’s doubles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Four years later in London, Federer took home silver in men’s singles from the All-England Club while Andy Murray won gold and Juan Martin Del Potro battled to the bronze.

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