Serena, Federer and the question: how much longer?
Serena Williams left Wimbledon in round one due to an injury, Roger Federer did not leave a good impression. How long will the two icons remain in tennis?
by Jörg Allmeroth
last edit: Jun 30, 2021, 02:31 pm
For almost two decades, it was the closing scenes that shaped Wimbledon: Serena Williams and Roger Federer at the traditional Champions Dinner in the London Guild Hall, happily posing together with their trophies. The brawny, once irresistibly powerful American won the Open English Championships seven times, and the Swiss maestro emerged from the racing duels as the title hero eight times. It was an era of united dominance that paralyzed and froze entire generations of opponents.
But on the first tournament Tuesday of 2021, June 29, the returning fans on Curch Road experienced completely different scenes with the once powerfully determining professionals: Serena Williams, once the embodiment of power and assertiveness on Center Court, limped later in the evening with a thigh injury from the green main meadow of the All England Club - heartbroken and in tears after her injury-related task against Belarusian Alexandra Sasnovich. Her tournament guest appearance lasted a full 34 minutes, it was just 3: 3 when the American threw in the towel. "My heart is broken," Williams later reported on Instagram.
Federer blankly
And Federer? In the game before the Williams drama, he was sitting on his chair in consternation when he fell behind against French Adrian Mannarino by 2 sets. His gaze was empty, he shook his head, he seemed to suspect that this first appearance could also have been since the last. But then a stroke of fate saved him, Mannarino slipped on the slippery track while twisting. He received treatment and painfully lost the fourth sentence. Only to then walk over to Federer and shake his hand - he couldn't go any further. But it does for Federer. But how?
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Federer will be 40 years old this year, just like Williams. And for both superstars on the threshold of the fifth decade of life, the question arises: How much longer? At one time the duo was surrounded by an aura of invulnerability, especially at Wimbledon, and it felt like they were already ahead of each of the eliminations in the tennis sanctuary. None of this has remained in the twilight of impressive careers, also and precisely because of the injury problems that both plagued in the recent past. After his comeback after 14 months of compulsory abstinence and two knee operations, Federer simply does not get going, he was far from his goal of at least getting close to his old strength and class for the lawn season, even in the match against Mannarino. Without Mannarino's bad luck with injuries, the Swiss would have loved to experience the bad start of the bankruptcy.
Serena has achieved incredible things
“Of course you don't want to win like that,” he said later, “but who knows what's going to happen now.” Federer had come down from the tennis Olympus, the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung” noted meanwhile, he is now playing at eye level with him Medium-sized tennis players, with players such as the German Dominik Koepfer at the French Open. After the third round victory against Koepfer, Federer had withdrawn in Paris in order to direct all concentration to Wimbledon - with hardly any convincing effect at first.
Williams is at risk of being sidelined for some time after her thigh injury. After her baby break in 2017, the American played some remarkable matches when she got back into the game, in 2018 she even advanced to the final at Wimbledon and lost to Angelique Kerber. But like Federer, she often sat on the sidelines, plagued by minor and major ailments. The hunt for the setting of the eternal Grand Slam record, for major title number 24, was unsuccessful. “Your options are getting smaller and smaller now. You'd better look at the unbelievable she's achieved, ”said former number one, Tracy Austin.
Here the single tableau of women
Here is the men's single tableau
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