<\/p>\n
Roger Federer, a 20-time Grand Slam singles champion, will retire from top-level tennis after the Laver Cup in London later this month.<\/p>\n
Swiss Federer, 41, has not played since Wimbledon 2021, after which he had a third knee operation.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy body\u2019s message to me lately has been clear,\u201d Federer said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have played more than 1,500 matches over 24 years. Now I must recognise when it is time to end my competitive career.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cTo the game of tennis, I love you and will never leave you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Federer has struggled with a knee problem for the past three years that has restricted him to only three of the 11 Grand Slams staged since the start of 2020.<\/p>\n
He has not played a competitive match since losing to Hubert Hurkacz in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon last summer.<\/p>\n
He subsequently announced he needed more surgery on his knee having previously had two operations in 2020.<\/p>\n
Only Spain\u2019s Rafael Nadal, with 22 majors, and Serbia\u2019s Novak Djokovic, with 21, have more men\u2019s Grand Slam singles titles than Federer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a bittersweet decision because I will miss everything the tour has given me,\u201d added Federer.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut, at the same time, there is so much to celebrate. I consider myself one of the most fortunate people on Earth. I was given a special talent to play tennis and I did it at a level that I never imagined for much longer than I ever thought possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
As well as thanking his family, support team and fans, Federer also thanked his opponents from a golden era of the men\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was lucky enough to play so many epic matches that I will never forget. We battled fairly, with passion and intensity, and I always tried my best to respect the history of the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel extremely grateful. We pushed each other, and together we took tennis to new levels.\u201d<\/p>\n
Federer made his professional debut aged 16 in 1998 and won his first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon in 2003.<\/p>\n
He ends his career with a record total of eight men\u2019s singles victories at the All England Club.<\/p>\n
Federer\u2019s last Grand Slam victory was at the 2018 Australian Open<\/p>\n
Federer\u2019s final Grand Slam triumph came at the 2018 Australian Open when, aged 36, he became the second-oldest man to win a major singles title in the Open era.<\/p>\n
After rising to world number one for the first time in 2004, he spent 310 weeks as the leading player on the ATP Tour during his career \u2013 a record until he was surpassed by Djokovic in February 2021.<\/p>\n
His retirement announcement comes less than two weeks after 23-time Grand Slam singles champion Serena Williams played what is expected to be the final match of her career at the US Open.<\/p>\n
BBC<\/p>\n
\n\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Roger Federer, a 20-time Grand Slam singles champion, will retire from top-level tennis after the Laver Cup in London later this month. Swiss Federer, 41, has not played since Wimbledon 2021, after which he had a third knee operation. \u201cMy body\u2019s message to me lately has been clear,\u201d Federer said. \u201cI have played more than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1205257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[20344,2754,7664,1875],"class_list":["post-1205256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-federer","tag-month","tag-retire","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1205256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205256\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1205256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1205256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1205256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}