Is Federer Tarnishing His Legacy by Playing on?

   

After taking an early exit in the French Open quarter-final, losing to Stan Wawrinka in straight sets, Roger Federer has questions over his capability to win another major title.

The 33-year-old turned professional in 1998, and throughout his established career in tennis he has won numerous major titles, including 17 Grand Slams. The majority of his titles have been won at Wimbledon, which is where he also won the hearts of British tennis fans for his professionalism and showmanship.

The peak of his career was between 2003 and 2008, where his title-winning form was almost impossible to stop. He won five consecutive Wimbledon titles, five consecutive US Open titles and three Australian Open titles.

Federer now seems to be way past his peak, having only won one Grand Slam tournament in the last five seasons, at Wimbledon. Despite making a number of semi-finals and a couple of finals, Federer has struggled to find the form which made him such a formidable opponent all those years ago. This is why it is easy to question whether Federer is damaging his legacy by playing on.

He has only made one Grand Slam final so far in the last three seasons, and has struggled to beat opponents this season as well. He was knocked out in only the third round of the Australian Open by Andreas Seppi earlier in the year, and now in the quarter-final of the French Open to Wawrinka.

Despite a lack of results, Federer sits second in the world rankings and he is playing some good quality tennis, it is just not the title-winning tennis everyone would expect of him. It may be the case that his legacy is becoming tarnished as he stops winning Grand Slams, but that is not what people will remember Roger Federer for.

In the same way that Ronnie O’Sullivan is important to snooker or how central Phil Taylor is to darts, Federer will always go down as one of the greats of tennis, regardless of the lack of form in the latter stages of his career.

Spectators will always find Federer a joy to watch on the tennis court and his attitude towards the game is something which has earned him such a large fan base over the years. His dignity and elegance was seen in his last Grand Slam win at Wimbledon in 2012 after beating an emotional Andy Murray.

For a player who has won everything in his sport he shows remarkable respect for his opponents, something witnessed later in the same year when Murray returned the favour, beating Federer to win gold in the London Olympics.

Regardless of recent results, Federer is still playing some good tennis and could well go on to win another major title. If this isn’t the case, his legacy will still be based on numerous achievements in his long career and everyone will remember him for the professional that he is.