Opinion: This might really be the end for Roger Federer, and that's OK
The word “retirement” was never spoken by Roger Federer during a 97-second video posted to his Instagram on Sunday, but the implication of the news he revealed was clear.
For all intents and purposes, a third surgery on his right knee means the competitive portion of Federer’s career is almost certainly over. What’s at stake, from a tennis standpoint, is whether Federer at 40 can get healthy enough for a goodbye befitting his achievements in a sport he helped carry for nearly 20 years.
“I’ll be out of the game for many months, so it’s going to be difficult in some ways but at the same time I know it’s the right thing to do because I want to be healthy,” Federer said. “I want to be running around later as well again and I want to give myself a glimmer of hope also to return to the tour in some shape or form.”
Hopefully in Federer’s calculation about what the next year holds for him, any desire to return is coming entirely from within and not from a misplaced sense of duty to the sport or to his fans. None of that is necessary.
After 20 Grand Slams, 103 ATP singles titles and so many late-career thrills even after his dominance faded, Federer has given tennis more than enough. He has lasted longer than all the other legends that came before him, worked to maintain his competitiveness for several years more than anyone could have reasonably expected.
At this point, Federer’s long-term health and the ability for him to live a normal, pain-free life after all the hard miles he’s put on those joints and ligaments is far more important than seeing him play Wimbledon one last time.
The tough part is that Federer, at least in some ways, still doesn’t want to completely let go of being a professional tennis player. Unlike so many of his counterparts who get ground down by the routine and lifestyle of the tour, Federer famously thrives on it.
And if he were still healthy, it’s pretty clear that even at age 40, he’s good enough to be in the mix at the Grand Slams. This is still a guy who was able to come back from two knee surgeries last year, play a handful of matches and still make the fourth round of the French Open and the quarterfinals at Wimbledon.
But contrary to what it has looked like throughout his career, Federer’s body isn’t timeless. Whatever combination of biomechanics, luck and good genetics kept him relatively healthy for so many years is now meeting the reality of a sport that demands a lot from those joints and ligaments and quick-twitch muscles. There’s an expiration date on everything. It’s remarkable Federer has pushed it off this long.
It’s largely a forgotten narrative now, but Federer was pretty much written off a decade ago. Starting with the 2010 French Open, Federer went through a stretch of nine Grand Slams where he only made one final and there were increasing calls for him to retire in his early 30s the same way his idols Pete Sampras and Stefan Edberg did when they fell off a couple degrees.
With his primary rivals Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal still in ascent, Federer’s 2012 Wimbledon had a last hurrah feel. Instead, it took nearly five more years to witness arguably his greatest achievement in 2017 when he added two more major titles, won seven tournaments and set up a return to the No. 1 ranking in early 2018 after yet another Australian Open trophy.
Federer putting together that last run after his 35th birthday was the best kind of tribute to his legion of fans, not a ceremonial stroll around Center Court at Wimbledon as his body breaks down.
The allure of Federer wasn’t just the winning, it was the visual appeal of watching someone glide around a court and make a very difficult game look like a ballet. To see him unable to play that way anymore would be sadder than saying goodbye.
Federer acknowledged in his video message that he’s realistic about the difficulty of another comeback with a knee that hasn’t cooperated now for 20 months. The issue for him going forward isn’t just the age or being able to play tennis without pain, it’s his tolerance for the effort it will take to get his fitness and his game back in shape to play at a high level.
For somebody who’s already accomplished so much, finding the motivation to do that when the possibility of winning big titles no longer seems realistic can’t be easy.
As one of the most iconic athletes of this century, Federer deserves to go out on his own terms. On Sunday, he admitted that may not be physically possible. It would be undeniably sad if we never saw him on a tennis court again. But given everything he’s given to his sport and his fans, hopefully the only pressure he feels to give it one last shot is coming from himself.