He’s 38 but Roger Federer maintains more grand slam chances await despite confessing to a “missed opportunity” after blowing a two-sets-to-one advantage in a shock US Open quarter-final defeat.
Clearly hindered, a gracious Federer refused to blame a back issue for his 3-6 6-4 3-6 6-4 6-2 collapse against Grigor Dimitrov, a rival he’d not lost to in seven previous meetings.
“Physically, yeah, I felt it the whole time. That’s it. I was able to play with it. My bad not to win,” said Federer, who all but surrendered while dropping four games to fall behind 4-0 in the deciding set immediately after requiring a medical timeout.
“I just needed some treatment on my upper, what is it, back, neck. Just needed to try to loosen it up, crack it and see if it was going to be better.
“Yeah, but this is Grigor’s moment and not my body’s moment, so it’s OK.”
Federer’s great rival Novak Djokovic quit mid-match at a grand slam for the sixth time during his fourth-round loss to Federer’s fellow Swiss Stan Wawrinka.
But while Federer seemed to go through the motions in the fifth set, he never considered stopping for the first time in his 1494-match career, despite feeling uncomfortable during his warm-up on Tuesday afternoon.
“I was able to play. It’s okay. It’s how it goes. I tried my best. By far not too bad to give up or anything,” he said.
“Grigor was able to put me away. I fought with what I had. That’s it. So it’s OK.”
Despite Federer only this week saying he felt physically fit enough to carry on into his 40s, former world No.1 John McEnroe said, as ever, the Swiss master’s defeat would be followed by the inevitable questions of how much longer he could carry on.
Even McEnroe, who won the last of his seven grand slams at 24, cast doubt on Federer’s ability to keep on keeping on, despite acknowledging it was only seven weeks ago he held two championship points against Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon.
“As you get older, there’s just going to be more days where you just don’t have it or something comes up,” McEnroe said during US commentary.
“He’s done an admirable job lasting this long.
“But to ask to go the best of seven best-of-five-set matches on a court as punishing as this is a tall order for anyone – even Roger.”
Federer, though, vowed, to continue fighting to add to his record haul of 20 grand slam men’s singles titles.
“I don’t have the crystal ball. Do you?’,” he said when questioned about his future major prospects.
“So we never know. I hope so, of course.
“I think still it’s been a positive season.
“Disappointing now, but I’ll get back up, I’ll be all right.”
The vanquished world No.3 didn’t feel any need to change his late-season schedule, with the Laver Cup in Geneva from September 18-20 his next event.
“I’m happy to get a bit of a break now, go back to practice, reassess and attack from there.
“Just disappointed it (the US Open) is over because I did feel like I was actually playing really well after a couple of rocky starts.
“It’s just a missed opportunity … but got to take the losses. They’re part of the game.
“Looking forward to family time and all that stuff. “So, life’s alright.”
