Federer must be on the ball for Grand Slam

It would be foolish to write off the great man at this year’s US Open.

Funny things happened at Wimbledon this summer!

A British man won the Men’s title for the first time in 77 years and seven players retired injured on one weird day.

And a host of big names suffered shock early losses.

But perhaps the biggest surprise of all was seeing Roger Federer lose in the second round to a player ranked 116 in the world.

Federer was defending champion and the Master of Centre Court after his seven titles.

He hadn’t failed to reach at least the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam for over nine years.

Defeat on “his” court to Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky was perhaps evidence that Federer’s incredible career is starting to slow down.

That was backed up when he surprisingly entered two clay court events in Germany and Switzerland, while Andy Murray, the new Wimbledon Champion, was sunning himself on the beach.

The Swiss suffered a first-round loss in one and defeat to a qualifier, ranked 114, in the other, as he experimented playing with a new racket.

An indifferent season by his standards, with just one title to his name, has seen Federer fall to No 5 in the world, his lowest position for a decade.

The 32-year-old has won 17 Grand Slam titles, but with each one that goes by now, his chances get slimmer.

There’s clearly a gap opening between him and Murray, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.

Federer is now in New York for the US Open, which begins next Monday.

He’s won five times at Flushing Meadows, but the last time was in 2008 and he hasn’t reached the final for four years.

If the draw is unkind, he could have to beat all three of those rivals if he wants to be a Grand Slam Champion again.

However, it would be foolish to write Federer off too soon.

Pete Sampras was in a similar situation when he arrived at the US Open in 2002.

The seven-time Wimbledon Champion had suffered an embarrassing loss that summer on Court 2 at SW19, and his time at the top looked over.

But he had one last hurrah. Sampras surprised everyone by winning the tournament, for a then record 14th Grand Slam, in what turned out to be the last event of his career.

Federer himself remains feeling positive. He insists he’s now recovered from niggling injury problems and is ready to provide more thrills for his legion of fans.

“I’m fit again and I’m mentally motivated,” he argues.

“I was ready to get over the Wimbledon loss as quickly as I could, which I did.

“I took a short break and started practising extremely hard, and things were great.

“Now, I want to get my game and my body back together.”

Sadly, one person who won’t be in New York is Wimbledon Ladies’ Singles winner Marion Bartoli.

The Frenchwoman with the unusual style came out on top when all the big names had been knocked out.

But after a loss in her first match in Cincinnati two weeks ago, she tearfully announced her retirement.

Bartoli finally admitted defeat to longstanding injuries that she suffers from on a daily basis, after more than a decade on the tour.

But while she contemplates the future, she’ll still have the gleaming Venus Rosewater dish as a reminder of that special Centre Court afternoon.