Don’t know if that was last time I’ll play Wimbledon, says Federer

LONDON

“I really don’t know if that was the last time I’ll play Wimbledon,” said Swiss tennis maestro Roger Federer after losing to Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz on Wednesday.Hurkacz stunned 39-year-old Federer to storm into the semifinals of the tournament. Hurkacz defeated Federer 6-3, 7-6, 6-0 in straight sets in the quarterfinals of the ongoing Grand Slam here at the Centre Court. “I really don’t know if that was the last time I’ll play Wimbledon. I have to take a few days, then go from there. Hubert played great. It was tough, you know,” Wimbledon’s official website quoted Federer as saying.

“The last few games obviously… you can feel that you’re not coming back from it. I’m not used to that kind of situation, especially not here,” he added.The former World No. 1 said he was disappointed with the defeat and admitted to being “horribly exhausted”.

“The last 18 months have been long and hard. I felt very disappointed in the moment itself. I still am. I feel horribly exhausted. I could go for a nap right now,” said Federer. “You put everything on the line, and when it’s all over you could just go sleep because you’re so exhausted from mentally pushing yourself forward, and trying everything,” he added.

But immediate retirement, Federer clarified, is not in his thoughts, despite his two knee surgeries in 2020. “No, it’s just about having perspective. You need a goal when you’re going through rehab. You can’t think of the entire mountain to climb at once. You got to go in steps. Wimbledon was the initial first super-step,” said Federer“As you can see, it was a struggle for me and putting in extra effort all the time, especially when things got difficult against Hubert. I knew it was going to be really hard. Now I just got to talk to the team, take my time, take the right decision,” he added. After winning the first two sets, Hurkacz did not drop a single game in the third set, winning it 6-0 and as a result, Federer bowed out of the Wimbledon.