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By Chris Oddo | Tuesday, July 8, 2014

 
Roger Federer, Wimbledon 2014

Roger Federer isn't sure if he'll win more majors or not, but he knows he doesn't feel threatened by tennis's next generation yet.

Photo Source: Kieran Galvin/Camerasport

After dropping the Wimbledon final against Novak Djokovic in five sets, Roger Federer believes his exceptional performance could be the stepping stone to bigger accolades, rather than the last-ditch shot at Grand Slam glory that many are interpreting it as.

More: Djokovic Downs Federer in Epic Wimbledon Final

“You've just got to wait and see,” said Federer, when the inevitable question was asked – whether or not he felt that this could be his last shot at a Grand Slam title. “There is no guarantee that you're going to be ever there again or not. Or maybe there's much more to come. It's really impossible to answer that question.”

He added, confidently: “I'm very happy to see that with feeling normal I can produce a performance like I did the last two weeks. That clearly makes me believe that this was just a steppingstone to many more great things in the future.

Though there was much talk about tennis’s "generation next" possibly beginning to facilitate a change of the guard at the top of the sport, that didn’t happen at Wimbledon. For the 36th time in the last 38 Grand Slams, a member of the Big Four came away with the Grand Slam title. Federer says it’s a trend that’s likely to continue.

“Yeah, I don't feel like a huge threat by them,” the 25-time Grand Slam finalist said. “I feel like, yeah, they're good. There's many good players from whatever, 5 or 6 to 20. They're all unbelievably strong. But they're also somewhat exchangeable from 30 or 40. “I think it's actually very strong in that level, between 5 and 40, in my opinion. There's a lot of dangerous players around there. But I feel like if I'm playing well I feel like I can control the field to a degree. Clearly there's never a guarantee, like I mentioned. But I do believe the top guys are the ones we know and who are still going to be deciding outcomes of the bigger tournaments, like the Masters 1000s and the Grand Slams and the World Tour Finals."

Federer, who will turn 33 on August 8, and could have become the oldest Wimbledon champion in Open Era history on the men’s side, says that you can’t really compare today’s rising stars to the group that includes himself, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray.

“We all made the breakthrough much earlier than most of the guys,” he said. “Not just a match here or there. I mean, I can't put myself in the league of Rafa because he was one of the best teenagers we ever had besides Bjorn Borg. I wasn't that guy. I was, I guess, better at 21, 22 or 20. That's when I started to make my rise. So there's not that many young guys. There's really only one teenager in the top 100 and we wish we had more. The other guys we're talking about are all 22, 23 and have been already on tour for five years. Nevertheless, it's exciting. But you cannot compare them to Rafa, Novak, or Murray, who were incredibly good already at a young age.”

 

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