Federer playing with new, larger racquet in Hamburg

[Ali-Iqb93]

Another straight sets loss for federer.. He was better off with pro staff 90

[djarvik]

Federer just gave an ultimate excuse to all his fans, from now on, every loss is his racket's fault

[Ali-Iqb93]

He said that he's been struggling with back issues since hamburg.. And eventually it's getting better.. Was it really his Back or is this an excuse because he indeed didn't serve well at all neither in hamburg nor in gstaad with very poor movement on the court

[Ali-Iqb93]

He shared Thursday that he's recently been struggling with back issues, but did not regret his decision to play in Gstaad.

"I decided after today’s warm-up whether I would play or not," he said. "I’m happy that I was able to play because I’ve had problems for some time now, already in Hamburg. But it didn’t get worse during today’s match. I’m positive and I felt that it was getting better during the last few days.

"I’m still happy that I came to Gstaad this week. It was great being back here and the crowd gave me a fantastic welcome."

[VillaJ100]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/tennis/23458238

for the first time, i think in this picture he looks old.

[Corbon]

He should stop making excuses and retire at the end of the season.

At least he equalled Mac's record on 77 tournament wins.

[J. Grilo]

When he still have fun playing tennis & tournaments, then there is no reason to retire.

[Murderface84]

What the hell is going on, I feel like I'm in the twilight zone.

Feels like it was just yesterday that he was embarrassing everybody in sight. He had so many lopsided victories as well as improbable come from behind victories that I think I and many people actually started to believe he was invincible.

It's actually pretty emotional to know that an era is pretty much over.

[Rob ITST]

I think he's getting closer to the end, but last year a lot of people thought the same, and he won Wimbledon and became number 1 again...... And I think the new racquet will be good in the long term - he just needs more time to get confident with it.

I'm not counting him out until he calls it quits.

[Ali-Iqb93]

He's not done.. He still has 2-3 years left in him .. He's having a bad year.. That's all. I m sure he ll make a good comeback. People asking him to retire don't have any idea about the ups and downs in sport

[Corbon]

When he still have fun playing tennis & tournaments, then there is no reason to retire.

My My Hey Hey...

Rob, compare his 2012 season incl. WImbledon and his 2013 season so far. There is no comparison really. The last solid tournament he played were this year's AO.

Noticed that during this season they changed his profile pic on atp.com,

from to

[Murderface84]

This is random but I don't want to start an entire thread about it:

Where the hell is Robin Soderling????

[J. Grilo]

What the hell is going on, I feel like I'm in the twilight zone.

Feels like it was just yesterday that he was embarrassing everybody in sight. He had so many lopsided victories as well as improbable come from behind victories that I think I and many people actually started to believe he was invincible.

It's actually pretty emotional to know that an era is pretty much over.

It had been already announced that he isn't in his strongest period - mentally. A painful defeat just had to come in a time and it was Wimbledon in this case. Every player have to go through such periods. In case of Roger it's kinda "weird" at the first moment, because he was so consistent for a long time.

It's a new situation for him and he will need time to digest. This won't happend immediately; that's why i am not really surprised about this negative series now. So, i find it just shortsighted to think his time is already over. I think some people need such periods to wake up again. It's up to him now, to make the best of it.

[Vieira151]

This is random but I don't want to start an entire thread about it:

Where the hell is Robin Soderling????

On his way back from disease. Not sure if he has started playing again.

[emate007]

Yea, it's weird seeing him look average. Looks more like no. 50 than 5 in the world.