In September 2022, tennis icon Roger Federer said goodbye to professional sport at the age of 41. For a player who at least had a significant impact on German tennis, a decision that, in retrospect, was not the best.
“It’s a bittersweet decision,” Roger Federer wrote on social media when he announced his retirement. With 20 Grand Slam singles titles, two Olympic medals and more than 300 weeks at the top of the world tennis rankings, the Swiss has shaped the sport like no other. Former Wimbledon champion Michael Stich still believes that a slightly earlier farewell would have been good for the Swiss.
“With the knowledge we have today, viewed from the outside, perhaps he should have let go a little earlier,” “tennisworldusa.org” quotes the 55-year-old, who in turn hung up his racket in 1997 at the age of 28.
“It was my decision and I had to live with it. That’s why the reaction of those around me wasn’t that important to me at first. Apart from that, I still believe that there is no perfect time to end your career anyway,” explains Stich, who decided to end his career after a defeat in the Wimbledon semi-finals in 1997.
Federer’s last professional years were marked by injuries
His decision back then was “completely spontaneous,” Stich continued. Today, however, he is “glad” to have met her like that.
Ultimately, of course, Stich admits Federer has his own path. “If he feels comfortable with the last few years of his career, that’s fine,” said the German.
Federer’s last tournament victory came in 2019, when he won an epic final at Wimbledon against Novak Djokovic. Injuries then took a toll on the superstar. In 2020 he reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open, and in 2021 he played his last Grand Slam match in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon.