Roger Federer: Why Novak Djokovic is crucial to Swiss legend’s future

That’s the view of former Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek.

Roger Federer has 20 Grand Slams to his name and was expected to add to that tally at Wimbledon.

However the 36-year-old was beaten by Kevin Anderson in the quarter-finals as Djokovic went on to lift his fourth title at SW19.

It came as the Serb returned to form following a tough 12 months where he underwent surgery on his elbow.

Novak Djokovic entered Wimbledon as the No 12 seed but defeated Rafael Nadal and Anderson on his way to the title.

And Krajicek, Wimbledon winner in 1996, believes the success of Djokovic will be vital to how well Federer performs in future Grand Slams.

“I think Roger can still win maybe one or two more slams, but again it depends on Novak,” Krajicek told Omnisport.

“For a while, Roger was playing really good tennis and Novak was there beating him two years in a row on the grass, I mean the level of Novak can be scary, a level of tennis I’ve never seen before.

“Guys who’ve played Novak and Roger say with Roger you always had a feeling you sort of had a chance, with Novak every return is close to the baseline, he runs everything down, he’s incredible.

“With Roger the thing, you’ve seen it a couple of times now, he has these physical lapses.

“At the end of last year at the World Tour Finals and he had it a couple weeks ago in Halle, and against Anderson, he missed match point and somehow doesn’t close the match, so it was disappointing.

“I still think he has it in him, but the key factor is Djokovic.”

Both Djokovic and Federer will be looking to add to their Grand Slam tallies when the US Open begins on August 27.


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