2022 will also be remembered as the year of Roger Federer’s retirement. The Swiss hung his racket at the age of 41, once he realized that it would be impossible to return to playing at the highest level. The 41-year-old from Basel has undergone three knee operations in the past two and a half years, but he failed to solve the problem and had to accept the reality.
The King had tried a timid comeback last year, playing just 13 official matches and stopping again after Wimbledon. Through a letter posted on Instagram on September 15, the Maestro announced his decision to retire to the world.
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The 20-time Grand Slam champion played his last match on September 23 at the Laver Cup, the exhibition he founded in 2017. Roger has joined forces with his longtime rival Rafael Nadal, who could not hold back his tears during the subsequent ceremony.
During a recent interview, Kei Nishikori confided that he has always admired Federer a lot.
Nishikori pays tribute to Federer
“I was overwhelmed by the atmosphere and also my admiration for him. After that I’ve started considering Roger Federer an opponent to beat though he is my idol,” Nishikori said.
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“His matches are fun, cool, filled with amazing shots, just perfect. That’s something all of us admire,” he added. “Roger is quite the same on & off the court, very cool on the court, funny & cool off the court too, I don’t have any his (embarrassing/funny) episode…
Had training block w/him when I was 16 or 17, that was really great experience for me, I’m grateful for that,” the Japanese said. Dmitry Tursunov recently gave his thoughts on the Greatest Of All Time: “Honestly, I see these debates and I see people with their mouths foaming discussing these things, and everyone kind of brings out their own argument.
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I’ve never really had that super huge desire of trying to figure out who’s the greatest of all time and I don’t really pay attention to that,” Tursunov said. “Obviously, Roger [Federer] was the first guy who was had this huge domination.
Sampras also had this huge domination in tennis, but, I think Roger just kind of took it to another level and then Rafa [Nadal] caught up and followed him and surpassed him and then there is Novak [Djokovic], who has passed Roger and is one behind Rafa. Who knows, maybe someone else is going to become even bigger than then all four of them,” he continued.
