Despite waning powers and retirement rumours, Roger Federer remains a Wimbledon contender

Roger Federer is aiming to win his eighth Wimbledon title. Maja Hitij / EPA

When Roger Federer steps out on court at Wimbledon next week to begin his bid for a record eighth championship, time and history will be against him.

If Federer makes it to the men’s final on July 12 he will be 33 years, 11 months and four days old. Only two men older than Federer is now — Ken Rosewall, at age 37, and Andres Gimeno (34) — have won a major in the Open era. Gimeno won the French Open in 1972, 43 years ago.

With a record 17 grand slam titles already, the Swiss, who was runner-up to Novak Djokovic in last year’s final, has little left to prove, which has prompted queries on the ATP Tour as to when he plans to retire.

Federer has been reticent in answering the question, although before the French Open last month, he acknowledged he had considered retiring after helping Switzerland win the Davis Cup last year, the first time he had been part of a victorious team.

No sooner had he revealed that little titbit, he then stated his ambition to play at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro next year to try to win gold in the men’s singles, arguably the only significant title missing from his overflowing trophy cabinet.

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He moved even further from talk of retirement when he said he did not want to retire while he was still competitive and regret it later on.

“I don’t want to retire and then maybe come back again,” he said at Roland Garros.

One man who hopes Federer does not call it a day anytime soon is retired British tennis player Tim Henman.

“It would be great if Roger could play for another two or three years, as he has done so much for the game and he will be pretty much irreplaceable when he does decide to stop,” Henman said on a recent trip to Abu Dhabi.

Henman, 40, is one of only a few men to have beaten Federer at Wimbledon having defeated him in the 2001 quarter-finals in four sets.

Henman, who reached four Wimbledon semi-finals during his career that ran from 1992 to 2007, said Federer has been part of one of the greatest era’s of men’s tennis alongside fellow multi-major winners Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

“The men’s game at the top is as good as it has ever been, and Federer has played a big role in that,” said Henman, who will be commentating on Wimbledon for the BBC in England when the action starts on Monday.

“You have Federer, Nadal and Djokovic who have dominated the majors. Obviously [Andy] Murray has done unbelievably well to win two in that time period, too.

“I think those (first) three will all go down as all-time greats and they have been around in the same era, which has made for some amazing tennis in my opinion.”

Federer, whose latest title before Halle at the weekend was the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in February, has continued to be competitive, but his last grand slam title win was nearly three years ago, at Wimbledon.

He remains a contender despite his powers seemingly being on the wane.

Many leading players have retired once the realisation they are in decline kicks in.

Pete Sampras was 31 when he retired with 14 grand slams, in 2002, and six-time major winners Boris Becker was 32 when he called it a day, while Stefan Edberg, who is part of Federer’s coaching team, was 30 when he stepped off the court for the final time.

If Federer sticks to his plan of playing until next year’s Rio Olympics he will be 35. Henman credits a change in how the game is played and better training plans as reasons for the Swiss star’s longevity.

“I think the nature of the game has changed a little bit. The surfaces are a little slower, there is a bit more baseline play,” he said.

“I think the training techniques have changed a bit and I think they are much more wiser when it comes to planning their schedules in advance, so, if anything, players probably play a little bit less than in my day and therefore are probably going to be playing a little bit longer.”

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