2021 In Between Grand Slam Thread

I am inclined to agree. I think there is a real risk now for Federer retiring while taking a drubbing from players he would have easily beaten a few years ago. If he loves the game that much, I can understand he wants to retire on his own terms but I just think there is nothing worse than great champions leaving on a really low note. I think Sampras nailed it when he was starting to struggle but then won that US open in 2002, he then retired straight after knowing it was only going to go one way after that victory. Quit while you are on top.

Maybe Federer will make a miracle comeback but the odds certainly against it if he will be turning 41 next summer

Federer, Nadal and Djok - should all see the writing on the wall and retire. Quit while you're ahead at least a bit.

Djokovic should retire?? He is world number one, won 3 out of 4 grand slams and reached the final of the other. He won the Paris Masters in the past couple of weeks beating the world number 2. Him retiring now would be utter madness. By all means look at it at the end of next year if his form and ranking plummets but he is still a phenomenal player, he would be crazy to retire now. I would even consider Nadal crazy to retire now until he comes back from injury to see how he performs. I would make Nadal favourite at the French open in 2022 even if he was playing at 70%.

The other big difference with Djokovic and Nadal is they are so strong mentally and they can physically hang tough in close matches. I think that is different to Federer who is now 40 years old, several years past his peak and he wouldnt in my opinion be as mentally / physically strong as the other two. I still think Fed might have one good run left in him in a slam but it would require a massive effort.

If he ever comes back I can't really see Federer going on any good run, he'll be close to 41 if he does return, after several surgeries on his knees and hardly playing in two years, it's expecting a lot to expect him to be competitive, even if he never got the knee injuries, at 40 or 41 no player can be expected to be competitive at elite level. Even if both Djokovic and Nadal stay relatively injury free I doubt either will be competitive at elite level (top 10 or 20) by the time they reach 40 or 41, 4 or 5 years from now

Amazing how ruthless the top players are. Djokovic had already won the group so it was a dead rubber this evening. You would think he might lack the motivation but clearly not!!

He beat Norrie 6-2 6-1 in 66 mins! He is an absolute machine. Zverev will be a very tough match tomorrow though

apparently 40% of the players are not vaccinated. This could be very interesting