My thoughts on retirement of Roger Federer

Readers of this blog know about my passion for professional tennis and that my favorite male player for the past 18 years or so has been Roger Federer.

So today he announced his retirement at the age of 41 and I find myself more relieved than sad. I’m relieved because I didn’t want a less than 100% Federer to come back and lose a bunch of times during some kind of farewell tour. He’s just too good for that!

Fed hasn’t played any events in more than a year due to knee problems so I’ve gotten used to his being away and focused on appealing players like Casper Ruud, Carlos Alcaraz and Stefano Tsistipas who have helped to fill the gap.

It’s been difficult though to see his two main rivals, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, continue to rake up grand slam titles while Fed was idle. They have now surpassed him in number of slams won. Fed retires with 20 while Nadal has 22 and could still add to the total since he won two this year and reigning Wimbledon champ Djokovic has 21 and could easily add more next year.

The Swiss legend held World No. 1 in the ATP Rankings for 310 weeks, second-most since 1973 behind only Djokovic. Federer held top spot for a record 237 consecutive weeks from 2 February 2004 until 18 August 2008 and became the oldest World No. 1 in the history of the ATP Rankings on February 2018 at age 36.

His longevity was astounding with his first grand slam title coming at Wimbledon in 2003 and his final (his 20th!) coming at the 2018 Australian Open. During that stretch he won a record 8 Wimbledons, 5 consecutive US Open, 6 Australian Opens and completed the career grand slam with the 2009 French Open.

Federer earned 1,251 tour-level wins during his illustrious career, the second-most victories on record behind only Jimmy Connors’ 1,274. The Swiss also claimed 103 tour-level trophies, only trailing Connors’ 109.

But Federer was about more than stats. He was about elegance on and off the court and style and class. He just did it about as well as anyone ever has and it has been such a joy to be a fan of his for all these years.