How far can Roger Federer go before the end of his career?
Roger Federer, arguably one of the greatest players the game has ever witnessed, achieved so many records in his illustrious career spanning over 20 years. He has some astonishing records to himself, one being the second highest number of titles (100) after Jimmy Connors (109).
Roger won his 99th title in Basel in 2018 and since then, the eagerness to achieve the 100th title by his fans around the world has been high and it got the better of Federer. He started 2019 by losing to Tsitsipas in the 4th round of the Australian Open and was a bit shaky even in the initial rounds of the Dubai tournament.
Now that the fear of achieving the 100th title is gone once and forever, the discussion should now shift to how far can he go before he call it quits?
Considering the competition both from his peers and the younger generation especially this year, Roger's chances of winning a Major title looks doubtful. Besides, he was unable to pounce upon the opportunities given to him by his opponents in recent matches in Slams.
Also, the dream of winning an Olympic Singles Gold medal is always tempting for Federer as he won the gold medal in doubles during the Beijing Olympics 2008 along with Stan Wawrinka.
Assuming that he plays till 2020 Olympics without winning any Major, he has to win 9 more titles on the ATP Tour to catch up with Connors. That seems to be an uphill task as it mainly depends on his ranking this year.
Roger Federer is currently ranked number 4 and he has to defend only the ATP 500 tournament in Basel and the ATP 250 in Stuttgart. He has to perform well and beat almost every player ranked below him to maintain the same ranking throughout the year.
He has to first do that and then there is always Wimbledon, his favourite tournament and favourite court where he will always be the favourite. Roger's only chance of winning a Major has to be Wimbledon and it should happen this year to further his chances of closing up on the record of Jimmy Connors.
Unpredictability has always been the case for Federer as he shocked many peers and fans with his comebacks in his long career. Considering the worst possible case (without any Majors), Roger might end up just short of Jimmy Connors with possibly 105 or 106 titles to his tally.
If he can sustain the ranking pressure this year and try winning off a Major, that will boost his chances of becoming the player with the highest number of ATP titles.