Roger Federer may well have played his last match at Wimbledon after being dismantled at the quarter-final stage, according to Boris Becker.
Federer, seeking a ninth title at the grass-court grand slam, was comprehensively beaten in straight sets by the relatively unfancied 14th seed Hubert Hurkacz on Wednesday.
The 39-year-old was beaten 6-3 7-6 (7-4) 6-0 on Centre Court, missing out on becoming the oldest male to reach the semi-finals of the championship in the Open Era.
Three-time champion Becker thought the manner of Federer's defeat, in which he hit 31 unforced errors and suffered the ignominy of losing a set to love for the first time in his Wimbledon career, could leave him questioning whether this was his last visit.
"I don't know if we'll ever see the great man again here," he said to the BBC.
"It's normal for anybody to make mistakes, but if you're such a perfectionist as Roger Federer, some of these mistakes were way out of his league.
"It can happen in a game or a set even, but in his case it was pretty much the whole match.
"As they always say, time doesn't stand still for any man or woman."
Federer came into this year's tournament having played just eight matches in 2021 following a lengthy recovery from knee surgery.
The 20-time major winner battled through the first round when Adrian Mannarino retired in the fifth set but looked to have regained some sharpness in victories over Richard Gasquet, Cameron Norrie and Lorenzo Sonego.
After losing the opening set against Hurkacz, Federer let a 4-1 lead slip in the second before succumbing in the tie-break, after which he never regained a foothold in the contest.
"Maybe in the first round he was trying to find his feet, he was lucky to get through, but in the following matches, he played better and better. Did he have a perfect match? No, but he had moments of perfection," said Becker.
"On paper, he was the favourite today. For him to go out and lose potentially his last ever set six-love... oh, God.
"I hope [he comes back in 2022], I don't want to see Roger losing his last set here. But there are certain rules in professional tennis that even Roger Federer has to obey: it's matches. You don't get your match fitness in practice, you're not going to get it in rehab. You don't know how strong your knee, your thigh or your mind is unless you're put in a position [to win]. He wasn't good enough today."
Becker drew parallels between Federer's defeat and his own 1995 final loss to Pete Sampras – a match that convinced him his time on tour had come to an end.
However, the former world number one advised Federer to play the remainder of the year and see if he can start 2022 on a positive note.
"My moment came when I lost to Pete Sampras in the Wimbledon final of 1995. I thought I was playing good, and I lost in straight sets against the better player," he said.
"I always felt that, when I'm not able to win Wimbledon anymore, why bother coming? Roger won it eight times; he's not coming here to play a tough quarter-final. He's coming here to win.
"He has to take a bit of a rest, play the hard-court season, go to the US Open and play the rest of the year. Go to Australia – he won there a couple of times – and hopefully win another tournament or two. Only then [will] he realise if he's good enough still to compete at the highest level."
Boris Becker ‘working hard with the authorities’ to return to Wimbledon in 2025
Boris Becker says he is “working hard with the authorities” to return to the UK and Wimbledon in 2025.
The three-time Wimbledon men’s singles champion was deported from the UK in December 2022 after serving eight months of a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence for hiding £2.5m of assets and loans in a bankruptcy fraud case.
Becker cannot return to the UK until October 2024 at the earliest following his deportation, but the 56-year-old German plans to return to the tournament he says is “in my DNA” as soon as possible.
“Wimbledon has been my favourite tournament as a player, coach and commentator,” Becker said at the Laureus World Sports Awards in Madrid.
“It’s unique, you can’t compare it.
“I lived in Wimbledon a long time so I’m working hard with the authorities to have all the applications ready to be back for next year. We’re working on 2025.
“It’s a part of my life. It’s in my DNA, you can’t deny that.”
Asked if he would be back in the Wimbledon commentary box, Becker replied: “I hope so.”
Becker has not been involved in tennis since stepping down as Holger Rune’s head coach at the start of February.
The pair spent less than four months together, but in that time the 20-year-old qualified for the ATP finals in Italy.
::The 25th Laureus World Sports Awards take place on Monday evening in Madrid. To find out more, and follow the ceremony, visit www.laureus.com
Tennis greats call for Olympic medallists across all sports to get prize money
Tennis greats Boris Becker and Martina Navratilova have called for Olympic medallists across all sports to receive prize money.
World Athletics announced earlier this month that it would be the first sport to offer Olympic prize money in Games history at Paris 2024, with winners in the 48 disciplines to receive 50,000 US dollars (£39,400).
Lord Coe, the federation’s president, said he was confident the International Olympic Committee would “share in the principle” of track and field gold medal winners earning prize money in Paris – but admitted his organisation had not discussed the historic move with the International Olympic Committee.
“I think it’s fantastic,” said Navratilova, the 18-time Grand Slam singles champion, at the Laureus World Sports Awards in Madrid.
“The Olympics have always been the biggest sports event and the athletes were the only ones not making money.
“Everybody was making money but the athletes. So I’m glad that’s changing because for some countries that’s a massive amount of money.
“For some of them it’s a drop in the bucket, but for some of them it’s a step in the right direction.
“Why shouldn’t they make money? Being a top athlete now is a full-time job. The days of amateurs have gone, thank you.”
Becker won singles gold at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, four years after the sport had returned to the Games following a 64-year absence.
He said: “When I listened to Sebastian Coe about prize money I said: ‘Finally someone is coming with the times’.
“Sport today is a full-time job, whether you’re a track and field athlete. a swimmer or in all the other sports represented at the Olympics.
“Everybody makes money off their back, so the athletes should not come last.”
Navratilova, like Becker a Laureus Academy member, also reiterated her objection to Saudi Arabia hosting the next three editions of the WTA finals.
The 2024 season-ending finals will take place in Riyadh in November, featuring the top eight singles players and doubles teams, and the event will also be played in Saudi in 2025 and 2026.
“We’re going to Saudi Arabia which is about as big a change as you can make, except for maybe going to North Korea,” said Navratilova, who says she has no plan to work at the tournament as a pundit.
“Chris Evert and I have made our views clear on that, but the players have made their choices. We’ll see how things work out.
“I heard a players say they ‘don’t want to be political’. Going to Saudi is about as political you can get.
“Welcome to sport. Sports is political and has been at the forefront of social change. I don’t see how anything happens there without the blessing of MBS (Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi ruler).
“He decides what goes and what doesn’t. We’re a bit egotistical to think we can make a difference, but who knows?
“The players have to honour that, they’re the ones competing. We’re not affected by it. We’re not going there to play.”
::The 25th Laureus World Sports Awards take place on Monday evening in Madrid. To find out more, and follow the ceremony, visit www.laureus.com
Former Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza announces retirement
Former Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza has announced her retirement from tennis.
The 30-year-old Spaniard won the French Open in 2016 before lifting the Venus Rosewater Dish on Centre Court the following summer but she had not played a competitive match since January 2023.
At a press conference where she was announced as a Laureus Ambassador, Muguruza said: “If 25 years ago, when I started hitting my first tennis balls, someone had told me that I would become a professional tennis player, that I would fulfil my dream of winning Roland Garros and Wimbledon, that I would become number one in the world and win the WTA Finals, I would have thought this person was crazy.
View this post on Instagram“Tennis has given me a lot in this first part of my life. It has been a fantastic journey in which I have experienced unique situations. I have travelled all over the world and experienced many different cultures.
“I am tremendously grateful to all the people who have helped and accompanied me throughout this chapter, because without them I would not have been able to get here.
“I have grown and matured in a very different way than what can be considered normal, and now I am ready to start a new chapter in my life, which will surely be linked in some way to tennis and sports.
“I hope that my collaboration with Laureus Sport for Good is the beginning of many more projects in which I can dedicate myself and help young people through sport.”
Muguruza turned professional in 2012 and reached her first grand slam final three years later at Wimbledon, where she was beaten by Serena Williams.
But the big-hitting Spaniard took revenge in 2016 when she stunned Williams in the final at Roland Garros, and a year later she beat Venus Williams to add the Wimbledon trophy to her collection.
She climbed to the top of the rankings in September 2017, where she stayed for four weeks, but consistency was not Muguruza’s strong point and she slipped down the standings before a resurgence in 2020.
Muguruza reached her fourth grand slam final at the Australian Open, losing to American Sofia Kenin, and she returned to the world’s top three at the end of 2021 after winning the WTA Finals for the first time.
But the next season saw her plummet back down the rankings and her retirement comes as no surprise given her long hiatus from the sport.
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