There was some evidence that the man on the tennis court was Roger Federer.

His name was on the scoreboard and was mentioned repeatedly by the referee.

The brand of clothing and the racket model also suggested that it was the record Grand Slam tournament winner from Switzerland.

Alone, that man there on the Center Court in Halle moved less smoothly than the maestro you know.

Thomas Klemm

Editor in the "Money & More" section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

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    His serves were anything but precise, the returns harmless, the basic strokes flawed. When this man was 2: 5 behind the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime in the third set, he also lost his composure when switching sides, crouched on the chair and looked at his racket helplessly. This man would not have won a Roger Federer likeness competition this Wednesday with certainty.

    But it really was. The old friend. Probably the best grass court player in history. The eight-time Wimbledon champion and ten-time tournament winner in Halle, East Westphalia, where even an avenue is named after him. After the 6-4, 3-6, 2-6 defeat against Auger-Aliassime in the round of 16, Roger Federer looked like a king who had lost control of his territory. He recognized himself the least. “I didn't have a good attitude and got negative. I'm not proud of that. ”When he last changed sides, the 39-year-old confessed that the whole difficulty of his comeback had occurred to him.

    So much self-doubt was strange, but justified. After two knee operations in 2020 and a break of more than a year, the Swiss had geared everything he did to the grass season. After returning in March, he lost his second game in Doha, then took a two-month break from training and failed again at the start in Geneva against an opponent who is far from Federer's eighth place in the world rankings.

    In order to be fit on the lawn in Halle and especially soon at Wimbledon, Federer recently retired from the Grand Slam tournament in Paris after three victories and traveled to East Westphalia early on.

    After the first training session on grass, he had claimed that the fun was back as well as the automatisms.

    Taking the ball early, often playing it undercut, that immediately felt “natural”, the Swiss said before the start of the tournament.

    A few days later he knew better that pleasurable training sessions cannot replace match practice.

    Federer has to collect himself

    What does that mean for his intended Wimbledon comeback, two years after the final defeat against Novak Djokovic, one of the most painful of his career?

    After the last rally against Auger-Aliassime, who was 19 years his junior, the Swiss took two and a half hours before he presented himself to the public.

    He had to collect himself, first wanted to consult with the trainer and family before he might say “wrong things”.

    What would have been wrong: I've had enough?

    Or: should we forget about Wimbledon and so on?

    What he actually said: He had to see every match as "information" and find out what was going on.

    Federer himself knew that sovereignty would not return overnight. But did he want to admit it?

    It had always worked out so wonderfully so far, especially when he returned at the beginning of 2017 after a six-month forced break, immediately won the Australian Open and a few months later also at Wimbledon.

    But now he is almost his fortieth birthday, and the signs are increasing that even his lawn kingdom is slipping away from him.

    Wistfulness is already spreading among professional colleagues.

    "I would like to see him win again," said Jan-Lennard Struff.

    Everything else, according to the German Davis Cup professional, is "strange".