McEnroe not counting out Federer out after latest surgery

Hall of Famer John McEnroe doesn’t think tennis has seen last of Roger Federer playing at an elite level following 38-year-old’s recent knee surgery. Federer anunced last month that he will miss French Open and at least three or tournaments while he recuperates. Federer indicated he would return by Wimbledon in late June.

Swiss star has spent more weeks ranked . 1 than any player and owns a men’s record 20 Grand Slam titles. He currently is ranked . 4 behind vak Djokovic, Rafael Nal and Dominic Thiem.

McEnroe was in Boston Tuesday promoting fourth edition of Laver Cup, which will be held at TD Garden in September. He said watching Federer competing at 38 has parallels to ar dominant athlete in Boston.

“It’s like asking same question on Tom Bry. You kw, it’s exact same thing,” McEnroe said. “I mean, how y keep doing it would be first thing at ir . It’s phemenal, right? I mean, how in world are se guys still playing at such a high level?

“I’ve mired watching Tom Bry because he makes players around him better. But you’re out re on your own and you’re 38 and you could be turning 39 on a tennis court with wear and tear. That’s really tough. … It’s alrey amazing he’s me it this far.”

McEnroe was coaching Milos Raonic in 2016 when he beat Federer at Wimbledon, only time Raonic has beaten him in a major.

“n Roger limped off court and didn’t play for six months. And I thought, you kw, that’s pretty much it,” McEnroe said. “That’s four years ago. And he came back after t having played for six months and mand to win Australian Open ( next) year, winning three best-of-five set matches, which is virtually unheard of to begin with, and to win three majors post-surgery. So you never can count him out.”

Federer, whose TEAM8 manment company helped create Laver Cup, has played in each of first three editions of event, which pits a six-man team from Europe against a team me up of players from rest of world.

McEnroe and his former rival Bjorn Borg served as captains of Team World and Team Europe, respectively, for first three events in Prague (2017), Chicago (2018) and Geneva (2019) — all won by European team.

y will reprise those roles for fourth edition in Boston from Sept. 25-27, which has been ded to official ATP calendar.

McEnroe said his latest meetings with Borg as coaches have been as intense as y were when y were tour players.

“re’s a lot of a lot of money at stake and pride,” McEnroe said.