Opinion: Don’t push tennis legends Roger Federer and Serena Williams into retirement; we’ll all regret it
Federer’s 6-3, 7-6, 6-0 loss to Hubert Hurkacz in Wednesday’s Wimbledon quarterfinal as anything other than an ominous sign for his chances of winning a 21st Grand Slam title. Williams, whether it’s her inconsistent tennis or injury issues, seems further away from adding her long-sought 24th Slam now than she was a year ago. Even Rafael Nadal started to look a bit old and tired in his French Open semifinal loss last month to Novak Djokovic, and after a comprehensive third-round Wimbledon loss, it seems like the ceiling for Andy Murray’s comeback from hip surgery is well below what it takes to win one of these.
So what?
Every tennis great has to decide whether the training and effort it takes to compete at the highest level is worth it for them when the reward is no longer winning the biggest titles. It’s totally understandable if these players, who have long passed the point of grinding like this for money or legacy, just say enough’s enough.
But we don’t need to collectively push them out the door just because they’re going to have days like Federer where he can’t keep the forehand in the court against a top-20 player who is 15 years younger.
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Ask yourself: Is tennis better or worse for Federer continuing to do that, even if it means he’ll throw in a dud now and then or run into a brick wall at the later stages of a Grand Slam?
Tennis has long been a sport where the mentality is to get out as soon as you’re not viable anymore in the biggest events. In the era right before Federer and Williams began to dominate, you saw Pete Sampras get out at 31, Stefan Edberg play his last Grand Slam at age 30 and Steffi Graf call it a career at 30. They didn’t wait once things started to decline.