With the retirement also of Serena Williams there is undeniably a sense that something is ending, the time of giants passing.Īnd yes, Federer really was the best of them. Nadal is 36 and held together with twine, staples and glue. Photograph: Lukas Coch/EPAĭjokovic is 35 now, still in peak condition but a little distracted by Covid stuff, culture war noise and generally being a kind of magic energy truther. It proved to be his final grand slam triumph. Roger Federer cries tears of joy after winning the 2018 Australian Open. Across the intervening years up to Wimbledon this summer Federer, Nadal and Djokovic have dominated the sport in an astonishing pitch of shared annihilation. Federer, a year younger, won his own first at Wimbledon a month later and within five years would win 12 out of 18 from a standing start. Juan Carlos Ferrero won the French Open in May 2003, the last grand slam tournament of the old world. What is it with these guys? Do they ever weary of seeing their own reflection in that pewter surface?Īpparently not. As a triple-godhead they have been the most irresistible source of entertainment, income and basic relentlessness, circling the sporting globe like mobile one-man city states. Djokovic is a fellow all-court master and one ahead on 21. Nadal’s invincibility at Roland Garros is the backbone of his 22 titles. ![]() It is a measure of the brilliance of Nadal and Djokovic that both now shade Federer on the basic tally of grand slam wins. And by extension, and without any reasonable cause for argument – the word reasonable must cover a lot of ground here – the greatest tennis player ever.Ġ2:12 How a ballboy became a legend: Roger Federer's career highlights – video There has never been a period of dominance in any global sport quite like the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic tripod of power.Īt the same time his departure also puts an end note on a more personal era, because even in this grand company Federer was the outstanding presence, the greatest player in the greatest time in men’s tennis. Federer’s retirement certainly brings the end of one shared span a little closer. On this occasion both of these responses seem appropriate. It is also tempting to overdo the mawkish viking funeral stuff, to drown in sickly-sweetness, to transform every departure into a tug on the sleeve from Paddington Bear, to conclude that the sporting life really will never be the same again. ![]() It is always tempting when a champion leaves the stage to announce that we will not see their like again, that the book is now closed. And yet the news that Federer intends to retire now at the ludicrously advanced age of 41 still feels like a shock, an oversight, a rumour that got out of hand.
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