At 35, Federer eyes a new era of supremacy
AGE NO BAR After a recordsetting eight Wimbledon titles, the Swiss master says he plans to continue playing until 40 My head is ringing. I don’t know what I did last night. I drank too many different types of drinks I guess...after the ball we went to a bar. I got to bed at 5.
The target now is to enjoy being Wimbledon champ. I haven’t set a sight on a number of grand slams; I was content at 17, that was a wonderful number. So was 18, and now 19 is great.
Buoyed by his recordsetting eighth Wimbledon title, Roger Federer warned rivals Monday that he could play until he’s 40, spearheading a late-life era of supremacy alongside Rafael Nadal. Federer eased past injury-hit Marin Cilic to become the oldest Wimbledon men’s champion of the modern era on Sunday, breaking the tie for seven All England Club titles he had shared with Pete Sampras since his last triumph in 2012.
It also gave him a 19th Grand Slam title in his 29th final at the majors. With his 36th birthday just three weeks away Federer believes that he could still be playing the tournament when he’s 40.
“You would think so, if health permitting and everything is okay,” said Federer, who won his first Wimbledon title in 2003.
His confidence in his longevity is based on the radical transformation he’s made to his playing schedule since his semi-final defeat to Milos Raonic at Wimbledon in 2016.
He immediately shut down his season, missing the Olympics and US Open, to rest a knee injury.
As a consequence, his world ranking slumped to 17 in January, his lowest since 2000.
But the gamble paid off as a rejuvenated Federer won a fifth Australian Open on his return before adding back-to-back Masters at Indian Wells and Miami.
He skipped the clay court season in the knowledge that a fullyfit Nadal was always likely to dominate the French Open.
Back on grass, Federer won a ninth Halle title before easing to his stunning Wimbledon landmark. Wimbledon, where he became the first man to win the trophy without dropping a set since Bjorn Borg in 1976, was only his seventh tournament of 2017.
By contrast, the unfortunate Cilic was playing his 15th, so it was hardly surprising that wear and tear contributed to his downfall, albeit in the shape of a humble but debilitating blister.
Federer’s match-win record for 2017 now stands at 31-2. His appearances on the tour will remain limited. He hinted he may sit out the Montreal Masters and play only in Cincinnati before an assault on a sixth US Open where he hasn’t won since 2008.
As always, it’s a decision he’ll make with those closest to him just as he did when he took his sixmonth break in 2016.
“I did ask them the question sincerely, to everybody on my team, if they thought I could win majors again,” Federer explained. “Basically the answer was always the same from them: that they thought if you’re 100% healthy and you’re well-prepared, you’re eager to play, then anything’s possible.
“That’s how it played out, so they were all right. I believed them. I had the same feeling. I think that’s why the break last year was necessary to reassess and get back to 100% physically.”
Federer is also within touching distance of returning to the world number one ranking by the end of the year.
Eleven of the last 14 Wimbledon champions have finished the season on top of the pile.
That list includes Nadal who, despite losing to Gilles Muller in a five-set last-16 epic at Wimbledon, remains one of the year’s in-form players with 46 wins and just seven losses.
Devastated Marin Cilic admitted his Wimbledon final tears were triggered by the realisation his bid to shock Roger Federer was destined to end in a painful defeat.
Cilic wept inconsolably on Centre Court midway through the second set after calling for medical attention on a nasty blister on his left foot.
“I got a bad blister in the semifinal against Sam Querrey. Fluid just came down under my callous in the foot...The physios here helped me over the last 30 hours. They were with me constantly and did as much as they could.
“I still felt the pain. Every time I had to do a reaction fast, fast change of movement, I was unable to do that. Obviously it was very tough emotionally because I know how much I went through in the last few months in preparation for Wimbledon.”
Cilic explained that his tears at 3-0 down in the second set were more a result of his disappointment at not being able to perform at his best rather than a legacy of the pain.
“It was just a feeling I knew I cannot give my best on the court, that I cannot give my best game, especially at this stage of my career, at such a big match,” he said.
“It was very, very difficult to deal with it. It didn’t hurt so much that it was putting me in tears. It was just that feeling that I wasn’t able to give the best. It was actually very difficult to focus on the match, as well, as my mind was all the
Wimbledon can make a strong claim to be the greatest, as well as the oldest, of tennis’s major championships but the 2017 vintage will not go down as one of the finest produced at the All England Club.
For all the admiration for Roger Federer’s record eighth title and the appreciation of the exciting promise of women’s winner Garbine Muguruza, two one-sided finals were not what fans wanted to see.
Those finals did, however, typify a tournament that promised so much yet ultimately, for all its usual elegance and charm, failed to deliver the excitement and drama that sports fans expect.
Ticket prices of 155 pounds ($203.08) for the women’s final and 190 pounds ($248.94) for the men’s final can certainly be justified in the current entertainment market but the matches hardly brought bang for the buck.
In the showpiece men’s game on Sunday, Federer’s opponent, Croatian Marin Cilic slumped to a 6-3 6-1 6-4 loss, twice receiving attention from medical staff and afterwards saying he had been hampered by a blister.
A day earlier Venus Williams, searching for a sixth singles title at Wimbledon, lost in straight sets to Muguruza, meekly surrendering 6-0 in the second set.
The impression was that Williams had run out of steam even if she admirably refused to make excuses or take credit time blocked with the pain.
“It was tough to focus on the tactics, on the things that I needed to do.
I wasn’t serving very good because of that.”