Federer back at Wimbledon, eyeing championship No. 8
LONDON — Write off Roger Federer at your own peril.
The guy’s been considered done by some folks at various times over the years, whether because of age or a bad back or a bum knee or a — gasp! — 4½-season drought without a Grand Slam title.
And yet here he is, about to turn 36 next month, about to tie a record by playing in his 70th major tournament and, lo and behold, back to his old status as a popular pick to take home the title when Wimbledon begins on Monday.
He is seeking an unprecedented eighth men’s championship at the All England Club.
“A player like Roger, as long as he’s playing, you know, he’s going to have a chance to win a Grand Slam. The day he will stop playing, that’s when he will have no chance to win,” said Stan Wawrinka, a three-time major champion who has played much of his career in his Swiss countryman’s considerable shadow.
“We all know as players, we all see on the court, we all see when we practice against him,” said Wawrinka, who is friends with Federer and has teamed with him to win a Davis Cup title and an Olympic gold in doubles.
“For sure, he had some years (that were) a little bit down — with some injury, with some tough results for him. That’s part of a long career.”
The lasting image of Federer at Wimbledon a year ago was of him face-down on the Centre Court turf during the fifth set of a semifinal loss, betrayed by a surgically repaired left knee.
Also tough to forget: The consecutive double-faults in the last game of the fourth set.
He seemed more vulnerable than the tennis world had seen him in more than a decade.
“The fall just really scared me,” Federer said Saturday, fingers clasped as he leaned forward.
Afterward, he recalled, he consulted with several doctors. Federer figured he would need a month off, maybe two. He was told that at least four months off was the proper way to heal. That meant no Olympics, no U.S. Open, no matches at all for the rest of 2016.
All he’s done since coming back this year is go 24-2 with four titles, including a recordextending 18th at a Grand Slam tournament by erasing a fifth-set deficit to beat Rafael Nadal in the Australian Open final in January.
That was Federer’s first major championship since Wimbledon in 2012, when he was a mere 30 years old.