Thanks to Roger Federer’s recent success over Cameron Norrie in four sets and thanks to Djokovic’s win over American Denis Kudla, we can officially say that, during the last 68 Grand Slam tournaments (since Wimbledon 2004!), One between Roger and Novak has always managed to make it to the second week of every major event.
As for the Wimbledon appointment, in reality, this figure may be retroactive to 2003 (last year was not played for the health emergency linked to the Covid-19 pandemic).
Speaking of Serbian, with the exception of the Us Open 2017 in which he was not present, the last time he could not reach at least the second round in a Grand Slam was at the Australian Open that same year, when he was surprised by Denis Istomin with the score of 7-6, 5-7, 2-6, 7-6, 6-4.
Coming to Federer, the Swiss did not fail to access the second week of the Australian Open 2015, when our Andreas Seppi expelled him from the tournament in four sets (in the count Roger’s recent losses are obviously not considered due to knee injury).
If Djokovic were to win Wimbledon 2021, he would rise to 20 Majors in total and this would allow him to finally match Nadal and Federer.
Federer lost in straight sets to upstart Hubert Hurkacz
Heinz Gunthardt believes the nature of the loss to Hurkacz would no doubt have made an impression on Roger Federer.
Steffi Graf’s former coach believes the most important question for Federer to answer is whether or not he enjoyed his Wimbledon experience this year.
“How he felt against Hurkacz in the third set, at his favourite tournament, in front of his audience, that he didn’t know how to win a point anymore, that certainly leaves its mark on him,” he said.
“The big question is: Did he enjoy Wimbledon or not? Only he can say that.” The 39-year-old is expected to take part in the Tokyo Olympics later this month. However, he is yet to confirm his participation. Gunthardt believes Federer should play if he feels ready.
“Will he continue to play in 2022? I don’t know. I don’t think he’ll go about it that way either. He will rather try to do everything so that he can play as well as possible in the next two, three months. If he’s fit, I see no reason why he shouldn’t play at the Olympics,” the Swiss expert said.
Although Federer is an eight-time Wimbledon champion, he looked far from his dominant self this year at Wimbledon. While the Swiss star lost in straight sets to upstart Hubert Hurkacz, the most shocking part was the last set, where Federer was on the receiving end of a rare bagel.
While the 39-year-old isn’t getting any younger, the tour continues to be more demanding for players. After suffering an upset defeat at his most successful Grand Slam, Federer seems most likely to miss the Tokyo Olympics.
