Chris Evert felt Roger Federer looked ‘weary’ in his Wimbledon quarter-final exit on Wednesday while Martina Navratilova thinks the ‘weaknesses’ in his game are being shown up with age.
Federer admitted he was shaken by his straight sets defeat to Polish 14th seed Hubert Hurkacz on Centre Court and offered little guarantee that he would returned to the All England Club.
In the French-speaking part of his press conference, Federer said: ‘I hope to make a decision on the Olympics in the next week because it is coming quickly.
‘It is not a problem for me. I need a few days because the big, big objective this year was Wimbledon whether I lost in the first round here or I won. We are going to sit down and make a decision and what is going to happen next. The best decision.
‘This match and the third set changes nothing, it was always the plan. But obviously it is true that this has shaken me a little bit because of the disappointment. I am disappointed. But you have to quickly digest that and move on to the next stage. That is the decision now. I am ok with that – I am used to it.’
Evert, the three-time Wimbledon champion from the USA, sensed there was an aire of inevitability about the result, given Federer is approaching his 40th birthday.
‘Well, I just think when you get older and you’ve been on the tour for 20 years you get to a point where it chips away at you and you have more days when you don’t really feel like going out and competing at 100%,’ Evert told BBC Two.
‘It looked like it wasn’t only his game, it just looked like he was a little weary, maybe. And this is a big decision for him, he’s 40 years old. Tennis has been half his life and the other half is in the future for him.
‘If he’s going to come back, he’s got to work harder than he’s ever worked before and he’s got to realise there are a lot of young, Next Gen guys coming up who are dangerous.
‘He and Serena sort of have the same path, I think. It’s going to be tougher and tougher. If he wants to play, he’s going to have to deal with more losses, I think.’
Navratilova thinks that the pandemic hasn’t helped Federer’s cause as he would be reluctant to travel without his family but admitted that at his age his weaknesses will always be more exposed than in the past.
‘Things are complicated because of Covid, right? There’s another unknown that now you have to deal with,’ said Navratilova.
‘Do you really want to give up your family so that I can play tennis? At least he had his family with him. That’s a big part of it that’s so much more complicated now.
‘But Roger lost a year because of surgery – so he didn’t lose anything tennis-wise, really – but he is two years older than he was at last Wimbledon. It’s a combination of two surgeries, he got his body together and the knee is fine but he’s two years older.
‘So I think it’s kind of Father Time catching up. No matter how much he works, he cannot get any younger. Also maybe he wants to work harder but you’re older so you can’t work as hard as you want to. It’s just complicated.
‘Maybe Father Time is catching up, his weaknesses were shown yesterday. Another thing that happens when you’re older and you have a slightly off day, it’s a worse off day than it was 10 years ago. So those weaknesses and mistakes are much bigger.’
While Federer may be approaching the end, Evert emphasised how much we should savour him before he hangs up his racquet.
‘It’s harder to string seven great matches together in a row to win a Grand Slam. I mean, come on,’ she added. ‘You have to be 100% mentally, emotionally and physically. And I think that’s one thing for the older, aging athletes to do.
‘But I hope – he has to retire on his own terms and really feel at peace with it. I think that’s why he’s saying he’s got to reach down deep inside and think about it, talk to my team. He should take all the time in the world he needs.
‘But US Open is going to be tougher with the hard courts for him. You want to savour every match he plays from now on.’
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