Federer regrets playing injured

Roger Federer

Roger Federer says he made mistakes by playing when injured, though he hopes for a strong finish to his most difficult season, ESPN reports.

Ahead of his hometown Swiss Indoors tournament, Federer cited matches he played with back problems at Indian Wells in March, and Hamburg and Gstaad in July.

Federer, ranked No. 7, said,  “With hindsight, I shouldn’t have done. They were errors.”

The 32-year-old Swiss says he’s “physically and mentally” prepared for a possible 15 matches in three season-ending weeks at Basel, the Paris Masters and ATP World Tour Finals in London.

Still, Federer says when asked if he could repeat his title hat trick of 2011 that “I don’t know if my level of play is strong enough to do it now.”

Federer plays on Monday against 60th-ranked Frenchman Adrian Mannarino.

He  insists he will continue to play the game he loves for a whole lot longer despite suffering a miserable campaign.

The record 17-time grand slam champion has only won one trophy in 2013 (Halle), and his place at the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals is not yet secured as he stands in eighth place in the Race to London, with the top nine players set to reach London’s O2 Arena due to Andy Murray’s withdrawal.

Federer, who has won the season-finale a record six times, is being written off by critics, but at the age of 32 he admits he still has plenty to give.\

“As long as my body and mind is ready to go to travel, (and) I’m happy to be doing what I’m doing, I’m successful. I’ll be playing for some time and that hasn’t changed due to a tough six months right now,” Federer said.