The end is near: Maestro Federer has the involuntary end of his career in mind
After the next low blow,Roger Federer has only faint hopes of a new return.
by Jörg Allmeroth
last edit: Aug 18, 2021, 03:18 pm
When Roger Federer still had the tennis world firmly under control with a light hand, he once looked far into the future. He does not want to fight for games, sets and victories on the Center Courts "forever", Federer said at the time, "I do not think that I will still be on the pitch at 35." Federer has long since given the lie to himself, in the current 2021 season he was still in the arenas at the age of 39, and on August 8 he celebrated his 40th birthday.
But if everything is not wrong, the career of the best-known and most popular tennis player on the planet is now irrevocably heading for the home stretch - if it is ever continued. When Federer announced on his social media channels on Sunday that he would have to have a third knee operation and would be out for months, something like a farewell mood was already evident in the short video recording. Federer said there was still a "spark of hope" for another comeback sometime next year. But the father of four did not seem convinced of this message himself, his voice sounded thick, his smile seemed tortured.
Miracles are drawing to a close
For a long, long time Federer was a lucky kid in tennis. He refined his extraordinary talents with great success, with the exception of the Olympic individual gold medal he won pretty much everything that can be won in tennis. And he was spared serious injuries until well into his thirties, while competitors such as Tommy Haas and Andy Roddick in the past, and later Rafael Nadal in particular, had to take forced breaks again and again. Federer's capital was his tennis art as well as his body, which he could use with perfect training control and also with fortune. The maestro even survived the first major injury in 2016 brilliantly - he even came back with a bang after a month-long break in the game, with the victory at the Australian Open 2017. It was his "most emotional and most beautiful victory" ever, said Federer. In his older days he even became Wimbledon champion again and the oldest number 1 since the new world rankings existed.
But the moments with miracles and surprise coups are now drawing to a close, even Federer cannot turn back time in the incessantly advancing tennis scene. When he resumed gaming this season after a compulsory break of almost one year, the good days were rather the exception. Federer announced early on that he wanted to achieve his performance peak in the lawn season, but then he lost in Halle, at one of his declared favorite places in the traveling circus, in the second round against the young Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime - due to the corona in front of empty stands. In Wimbledon, the Swiss reached the quarter-finals, but then suffered a painfully clear three-set defeat against the Pole Hubert Hurkacz. The dream of the trophy miracle in his beloved lawn area ended bitterly.
Does the curtain fall on the Big Three?
Apparently, Federer played again in pain both in Halle and in London. In his video message, the 40-year-old superstar said he had injured himself during the lawn season and, after consulting his doctors, had now decided to have his knee operated on again. What it is primarily about, Federer also said: "I want to be able to walk around normally later." The perspective for the coming months is "that I will have to walk on crutches for many weeks and be out of tennis for months." be difficult afterwards, ”says Federer.
With Federer's threatening farewell, the curtain for the era of the Big Three is gradually falling - especially since Rafael Nadal only goes to handicraft in a very dosed manner and was no longer able to triumph in his Parisian oasis of wellbeing this year. Soon only Novak Djokovic could be left from the group of extraordinary gentlemen, he is already the world ruler in tennis at the moment. In the future, he will probably have to deal with the upcoming age groups, with players like Olympic champion Alexander Zverev, the Russian Daniil Medvedev or the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas. And Federer? For him, the very faint, unlikely hope remains that he will be able to perform again at this or that famous tennis venue in 2022. Where he once showed his fascinating tennis magic.