There will be no US Open for Roger Federer this year, and after his announcement on Sunday that he will have yet another knee operation, it is time to question whether he will play tennis on tour again.

For now, Federer, one of the greatest athletes of this or any era, does not intend to retire, but after turning 40 last Sunday and after two operations on his right knee in 2020, he is well aware that the odds are heavily against him.

He is an optimist, no doubt. He has been successfully fending off retirement (and retirement questions) for more than a decade, but even he looked and sounded glum on Sunday as he described his situation in a post on Instagram, a medium that did not exist when he began playing grand slam tournaments in the late 1990s.

“I will be on crutches for many weeks and also out of the game for many months,” Federer said. “It’s going to be difficult of course in some ways but at the same time I know it’s the right thing to do. Because I want to be running around later as well again, and I want to give myself a glimmer of hope also to return to the tour in some shape or form. I am realistic, don’t get me wrong. I know how difficult it is at this age right now to do another surgery and try it, but look, I want to be healthy.”

For most of his remarkable career, Federer seemed to lead a charmed existence: free of major injury and ennui in a Darwinian sport that can grind down players’ bodies and psyches.

He did not have his first operation of any kind until 2016 when he was 34. After a six-month layoff in the wake of that left knee operation, he roared back in 2017 to win the Australian Open and Wimbledon. In 2018, he ran his total of grand slam singles titles to 20, a men’s record, by winning the Australian Open again.

But fortune has not favoured him of late.

He played five tournaments in 2021 and was able to reach the quarters only at Wimbledon, where he was beaten 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-0 by Hubert Hurkacz, a talented Polish player who has yet to reach a grand slam singles final.

If that turns out to be Federer’s final match at the All England Club or his final match on tour, it is far from fitting. But his failure to win so much as a game in the third set on the court where he has won a men’s record eight singles titles was also a sign that something was awry.

He confirmed that on Sunday while making it clear that his 2021 season was over.

“I hurt myself further during the grass-court season and Wimbledon,” he said. “It’s just not the way to go forward.”

He suggested that doctors had told him that surgery was his best option, not just for tennis but for life after tennis.

New York Times News Service