Roger Federer sent something of a shock wave through the tennis world with what he thought was an obvious joke after improving to 18-0 in first-round matches at the U.S. Open.
"I'm happy I never stumbled at the first hurdle," Federer said during his on-court interview Tuesday night. "Almost time to retire - but not yet."
Some folks' reaction might best be summed up as: Wait. WHAT?!
So Federer was asked at his news conference to clarify his comment.
"That was meaning, like, 'I never lost a first-round match here at the Open. I won all my 18. You don't want that (loss) to happen next year.' I said, 'Maybe I could retire now, because I protect my 18 first-round wins here.' That's what I meant with it," he said. "It's a total joke, yes."
And, then, addressing all of the members of the media in the room, just to make absolutely sure everyone understood what he'd been thinking, Federer added with a smile: "So please don't read into it. Don't even write that word."
For years, actually, Federer has dealt with questions about when he might retire. In part, that's because elite tennis players often used to become not-so-elite by the time they passed the age of 30.
If anything, he's looked as good as ever over the past two seasons, adding three Grand Slam titles in that span to raise his men's record to 20.
