For Roger Federer, Wimbledon in 2021 will not only be the last Grand Slam he will contest before celebrating the “Big Four-oh”, but also a chance to leave behind the memory of his heartbreak in 2019 at the Grasscourt Major.
The Swiss has held the gold-plated Challenge Cup eight times. But just as memorable, he lost the chance of a ninth title in 2019 when, astonishingly, he could not implement two World Cup points against Novak Djokovic.
That near-miss prevented him from winning a record-breaking 21st Grand Slam title and since then a combination of injuries and the Covid-19 pandemic has conspired to curtail his actions on the ground.
When Wimbledon’s favorite son hits the manicured lawn next week, he is hoping his surgically repaired knees can withstand the rigors of seven best-of-five set matches.
Even he does not know how Federer, who will be 40 years old in August, will cope with such demands on his body, because he has only played 34 games since the tie-break defeat in the fifth set against Djokovic in July 2019. only eight of them since February 2020.
Before injuries disrupted his career from 2016 onwards, Federer regularly played more than 70 games a year.
“It’s a huge challenge for me. Anyone who has multiple surgeries or one major operation knows what I’m talking about,” said Federer, who had left knee surgery on a meniscus tear in 2016 before going under the knife twice in 2020 right knee.
“Things don’t come easy. You make up your own mind … and that’s sometimes the biggest worry: the fear of pain or the worry about how you will feel the next day or when you wake up.
“All this stuff, it prompts you a little sometimes.”
His lack of match fitness is being seriously tested not only by the Djokovics of this world – who, by the way, will strive to flatten anyone who tries to keep him from joining Federer and Rafael Nadal on 20 majors – but also from an army of younger and fitter players.
The twenties Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev are no longer afraid of Federer and have beaten the Swiss several times.
Federer has made no secret of the fact that at this stage of his career anything he does or doesn’t do on a tennis court is only done to make sure he’s in the best possible shape to get another title run at Wimbledon.
With this in mind, he left the French Open after winning his game in the third round. It was a move that angered many critics who believed that if anyone else had withdrawn to protect their body, they would have been crucified for using another Grand Slam tournament as a dress rehearsal.
Others rushed to defend number eight in the world.
“Roger has earned the right to do whatever he wants in tennis right now,” said US star Chris Evert.
“Wimbledon is his dream, this is the golden tournament for him. He should be excused for every retreat he has.”
ESPN analyst colleague John McEnroe said the bigger concern was that, “He played a four hour game that won and then dropped out. It’s hard to say how he would have felt the next day if he had continued can?”
A few days fast forward and a second round defeat on grass in Halle, the earliest exit that Federer suffered in 18 appearances at the Wimbledon warm-up tournament, which he has won 10 times, was another setback caused by what the Swiss considered ” negativity”.
With his clear focus on Martina Navratilova’s total record of nine Wimbledon titles, however, as Eurosport expert Mats Wilander put it: “He will be as excited as the Rolling Stones at Wembley.”
