The Swiss maestro of the tennis court Roger Federer is to retire from professional tennis after the Laver Cup later this month.
What a herculean ambassador for his sport he has been.
The fluid, graceful glide around the court, all the shots in the book and endless style and panache. The guy had it all.
Twenty grand slam titles including 8 Wimbledon titles, 6 Australian Opens, 5 US Opens and a French Open to his name.
An absolutely lovely guy too blessed with huge global popularity.
Tennis will be much the poorer without him.
Total legend.
It goes to show that 41 years old is the new 33.
It must have been all that exercise.
He was one of the all time best players.
Will we ever see his like again in terms of his time at the very top?? He made the sport look so damn easy at times, it was almost criminal!
It is almost pointless to compare eras (wooden rackets and the like) but i just wonder whether it is reasonable to suggest that - despite of just how skilled the great man was - his opposition - before Djokovic and Nadal in particular came along (also Murray but to a far lesser extent let's be honest) - behind him as you went down the rankings - was nowhere near the level that Borg Sampras McEnroe Connors etc faced when they wrote themselves into the history books as undisputed living legends?? You can only beat who you can beat, and i guess that is the full stop, exclamation mark to this.
Enjoy your retirement Roger, and good luck to anyone seeking to employ him as coach. God alone knows what it will/would cost them in retainer fees.
IIRC, the first I heard of him was the first day of the first Wimbledon after Pete Sampras retired. There was discussion about the future, and John McEnroe offered the name of Roger Federer. And how right he was.
Part of the greatest clutch of players the game has ever seen (with Nadal and Djokovic). Almost certainly the right call for the good of his health. He has done enough. He will be revered.
We have seen Serena retire at the top of her game and now Roger. Tennis has lost it's two greatest asmbassadors of the modern era.
He has gone out at the top, to think he has competed at elite level for 24 years is astounding and 20 Grand slam titles is nothing short of stunning only Nadal and Djokovic ahead of him. I doubt we will see anybody like him for a very long time and it was lovely to see Nadal's tribute to him, and to quote him "It was a day we hoped would never come."
In amongst those titles are two Olympic medals which I'm sure he cherishes, very few tennis players can claim to be Olympic champion.
It will be strange not to see him competing at Wimbledon any more, but the main thing is he has retired at the right moment. The other thing he never retired during a match either!! Also he was No.1 in the world for 302 weeks!! 237 weeks were consecutive between Feb 2 2004 to August 17 2008 that alone shows his level of playing.
Thank You Roger for your entertaiment, enjoy retirement, and Tennis will have a diferent look about it without you.