Stepping out of retirement and announcing a comeback has slowly started to become a norm in tennis. Caroline Wozniacki‘s recent comeback announcement grabbed plenty of headlines as many felt that the Dane could have prolonged her career. Similarly, a former world number 5, Kevin Anderson announced his return to the tour last week.

The South African is set to play his first singles match in over a year, today at the Newport Open. He lost his doubles tie yesterday in the same tournament but the real journey starts today. Quite fittingly, he comes back on his favorite surface, grass, after a conversation with the ‘King of Grass’, Roger Federer.

Roger Federer’s role in Kevin Anderson’s comeback

Throughout his career, Anderson was an introverted guy. He would get intimidated while approaching the top players. But, now the 37-year-old feels like he could change that.

He said via the ATP Tour, “Had I been able to do [my career] over, I probably would have not spent maybe as many hours on myself in the practice court, but interacting or putting myself in situations. I ended up having a great conversation with Roger and for the first time, I felt just really at ease and [was] having a normal conversation.”

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He further added that “It was fascinating listening to him, just hearing the insights he had, it was a really cool experience. I didn’t really put that together [in terms of coming back]. I think before that I was kind of thinking of, ‘Maybe I should come back.’”

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The ease with which Anderson could interact with Federer really motivated him to come back to the tour. Earlier, the South African would be intimidated by the biggest names in the sport, but now he feels much more confident. But why had he retired in the first place?

Physical pain did not allow Kevin Anderson to continue

The former Wimbledon finalist had called it a day at last year’s Miami Open citing physical pain as the reason behind it. He suffered several injuries in the twilight of his career, which forced him to make this decision. At 35, the South African had hung up his racket, but he has officially taken a u-turn now.

Anderson now feels relieved from the physical pain and he considers it as an opportunity to spend more time interacting with his peers instead of just focusing on tennis. He has entered a stage where the relations matter more than results to him.

WATCH THIS STORY: Serena Williams pays tribute to Roger Federer.