Farewell to Roger Federer, the greatest player in an era of greats

Time and simple human wear-and-tear told us Roger Federer had to stop playing professional tennis at some point. Here is a man who was winning grand slam tournaments before the iPhone was invented, while Tony Blair still a very popular prime minister, and who first won Wimbledon a month before Carlos Alvarez was born.

And yet the news Federer intends to retire now at the ludicrously advanced age of 41 still feels like a shock, an oversight, a rumour that got out of hand. Is everyone really sure about this?

It is always tempting when a champion leaves the stage to announce that we won’t see their like again, that the book is now closed. It is also tempting to overdo the mawkish viking funeral stuff, to drown in sickly-sweetness, to transform every departure into a tug on the sleeve from Paddington Bear, to conclude that the sporting life really will never be the same again.

On this occasion both of these responses seem appropriate. Federer’s retirement certainly brings the end of one shared span a little closer. There has never been a period of dominance in any global sport quite like the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic tripod of power.

At the same time his departure also puts an end note on a more personal era, because even in this grand company Federer was the outstanding presence, the greatest player in the greatest time in men’s tennis. And by extension, and without any reasonable cause for argument – the word reasonable must cover a lot of ground here – the greatest tennis player ever.

It is a measure of the brilliance of Nadal and Djokovic that both now shade Federer on the basic tally of grand slams. Nadal’s invincibility at Roland Garros is the backbone of his 22 titles. Djokovic is a fellow all-court master and one ahead