Is it too late for Federer?

With all the jubilation of the past 24 hours I thought i’d take a look back at the tournament so far. However there are two or three huge talking points that cannot be ignored, the first being the domination that Andy Murray showed Milos Raonic in the Wimbledon final. I thought that the finals of competitions were supposed to be close. A matchup between the best performers of the tournament.

But Murray’s straight-set victory over the Canadian seemed to expose a ruthless side to the Scott that I hope to see in years to come. Dominating the first set and running away with the tie-breakers in the subsequent sets. Taking Raonic’s forehand out of the game throughout Murray’s service. Facing 147 mph serves and still winning the point, Andy was on top form and was able to carry his Queens victory and, more tellingly, his French Open final into London and onto Grass.

However his opponent, Milos Raonic, was one of the surprises of the tournament. Although ranked the forth best player in the world, the Canadian was still a relative unknown coming into the tournament. But he has definitely arrived on the world stage now. His lightning serve and aggressive net play proved too much for the seven-time Wimbledon champion, Roger Federer.

Which smoothly brings me onto the topic of Roger Federer, one of those athletes that you just love. Growing up, watching Wimbledon, Roger was always a huge presence and through the 2000s where he won six titles you can’t help but admire his grace and master of all shots. Even throughout the past five years, seeing the emergence on Nedal, Djockavic and Murray, Federer has been able to keep up with the kids and challenge in every Major title.

However the Swiss is now facing a forth major-less year and many are asking about his retirement plans. Although he maintained that he was not thinking about retiring in his post match press conference on Friday, questions will still be asked about his fitness.

From watching his Semi-Final loss to Raonic, I felt that Federer had everything left to give and everything to prove and it very nearly come off. However one point mid-way through the forth set saw Federer decline. Horrible to watch, especially as he had rallied back from loosing the opening set however he much admit that fitness is a huge factor.

My personal opinion is that he doesn’t have five sets in him anymore, we saw that he could easily have won the game in four sets but after loosing that there was a marked difference in his play and being broken early on would have only contributed to the feeling that this would not be his year.

A lot was made of Djockavic’s exit but the real player’s don’t need an excuse to win a title. I got the feeling with Murray that whoever he was up against whether, Djockavic, Federer, Raonic or Tsonga he would not be beaten. Federer on the other hand has a crucial US open and an even more important winter ahead. But he’ll be back and more importantly, he’ll challenge.