Federer blames injury for early Wimbledon exit

"To lose one may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness," Oscar Wilde might have noted after Roger Federer’s second unexpectedly early Grand Slam tournament exit this year.

And while the clay of the French Open – where the defending champion lost to Robin Soderling in the quarter-finals last month – is not his favourite surface, the manicured lawn of Wimbledon’s centre court, where the Swiss has won six titles in seven years, most certainly is.

Following his 6-4 3-6 6-1 6-4 quarter-final loss to Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic on Wednesday, the vultures inevitably assembled on the tree above the 28-year-old’s career.

"Roger Federer's aura is not just damaged – it is gone," wrote Kevin Mitchell in The Guardian newspaper. "He was a god reduced, a humbled champion."

The Australian labelled the loss "devastating", while The Sun called it "one of the lowest points in his career".

After the match, Federer played the injury card. "I'm struggling with a little bit of a back and a leg issue,” he said.

"The leg issue came in the final of Halle and returned a little bit after my first-round match here. It went away again but just kept creeping back during the matches."

"For the last five or six days the back has been really bad. It's normal that the back tends to get stiff in the grass-court season but it's just not nice when it doesn't go away and you can't play freely. That's what I was missing today."

Brian Viner of The Independent newspaper wasn’t convinced, calling the remarks "ungracious" and speculating that Federer was "becoming uncomfortably aware that the sun is finally setting on his era of dominance over men's tennis."

Viner may have a point. While there’s absolutely no reason to doubt the (now) world number three’s word concerning his fitness, statements from the Swiss, such as "reaching the quarter-finals is a decent result" and "many players would die to play a Grand Slam quarter-final", sound odd . . . and careless.

And who could blame him? The Swiss has bagged more Grand Slam titles that anyone in history, he’s recently become a father of twins and has earned more than enough cash to ensure a rather splendid early retirement.

And yet, although Federer’s season has been poor by his Everest-like standards, he has nonetheless won a Grand Slam tournament. A return to full fitness, a victory at the US Open and the naysayers would be forced to eat their words again, with vinegar.

In judging the career of the greatest player of all time with its remarkable consistency, it does seem a touch precipitate to write off the Swiss just yet.

Consider that Pete Sampras won the last of his Grand Slam titles – a US Open – at the age of 31; Andre Agassi was a year older in 2003 when dominating the Australian Open.

The question is: just how much does Federer care about his game now? He could do worse than listening to the Tribune de Genève newspaper – more constructive than its Anglo-Saxon counterparts – which called for the Swiss to hire the services of a top-class coach, support every other player enjoys, but support (aside from the mysterious role of Severin Luthi) Federer has incredibly done without since parting with Australian guru Tony Roche more than three years ago.