Serena Williams' Coach Predicts Roger Federer's Retirement Date

Roger Federer and Serena Williams are in the twilight of their respective careers but continue to play at the highest level despite being 38 years old. The American recently made it clear that she has no plans of retiring any time soon after making her fourth Grand Slam final in the last 14 months but Willams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou has given a date for Federer’s retirement.

The Swiss ace, who has 20 men’s singles Grand Slam titles to his credit, is currently ranked No. 3 in the world and has insisted that he still enjoys playing tennis and challenging for the major honors. However, he has drastically reduced his schedule in order to remain in peak condition for the major tournaments.

Federer skipped the clay court season in 2017 and 2018 in order to focus on the grass and hard court events later in the year but he chose to play the French Open in 2019. Mouratoglou believes it was a farewell tour on the clay courts for the Swiss maestro, who will not play it again in 2020.

The former World No. 1 has made no secret about wanting to play at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Williams coach believes Federer will retire in 2020 after playing at the showpiece event in Japan. The Swiss star has won everything in the game of tennis except the gold medal at the Olympics and he is keen to make one more attempt at taking the top step of the podium.

“Roger was usually skipping the clay-court season to avoid the risk of injuries and give himself the best possibility to win Wimbledon, which takes place three weeks after the French Open,” Mouratoglou said, as quoted on Fox Sports Asia.

“Coming back to this option at 37 years of age may seem strange but Roger is a very rational person. I feel he intends to retire in 2020 after the Olympics and so this year it may have been the last time he played on clay. I think he wanted to give his farewell to those clay-court tournaments and French Open,” Williams’ coach added.