The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Federer top contender as Wimbledon begins
A year ago, Roger Federer was down on the Wimbledon turf during a semifinal loss, betrayed by a knee injury that would sideline him for the rest of 2016. He sure picked himself up.
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! — 41/2-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 July 3.
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 threetime 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 July 1, 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 record-extending 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.
Some more time off would come during this season: Federer skipped the clay-court circuit, including the French Open, despite being healthy.
“I was ready to play in Paris,” he said. “I just didn’t feel ready to go yet.”
Federer wanted, he explained, to give himself the best chance to succeed on his best surfaces, grass and hard courts.
“We all felt the same way, that it’s better to save myself and give it all I have for the rest of the season — not just the grass-court season, but looking beyond that, too, all the way to the American summer, staying on a ‘fast-court tennis’ sort of mindset,” he said.
Leaning back in his chair with arms crossed, he said of missing the French Open: “I kind of never regretted it, even though it hurt.”
He tuned up for Wimbledon by winning a grasscourt tournament in Halle, Germany. In the final, he walloped one of the game’s up-and-coming talents — Alexander Zverev, someone 15 years his junior — as if to prove that the kids can wait their turn.
Tennis’ old guard is still in charge of the sport.
Federer, 31-year-old Nadal, and Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, both 30, are the top four seeds at Wimbledon. They’ve combined to win the past 14 titles at the All England Club.
“It’s very even, when we put it all out on the line,” Federer said about the socalled Big 4.
This is Federer’s 19th appearance at Wimbledon, two shy of Jimmy Connors’ record in the Open era. Federer enters with 84 match wins, equal with Connors for the most.
There are concessions to time, Federer acknowledges.
He tried to get through practice July 1 as quickly as possible — “short and sweet, just to get it done” — and then planned to take July 2 off before the grind begins.