Column

Roger Federer, in the on-court interview just after he won his 15th Grand Slam title, hastily made it clear that he was going to play for a few more years. Retirement wasn't on his mind. "I'm not here to break records, I'm here because I love tennis," he said, or words to that effect.

But the tennis world — as in any such high-intensity activity — is filled with people who just opted out one day. They'd had enough. Bjorn Borg opted out at 26, having won 11 Grand Slams, never to be seen again for several years. We read about his exploits with drugs and sex and it is only now, decades later, that we see him as a respected senior, seated in the Royal Box at Wimbledon.

The incomparable Ivan Lendl , sadly always remembered by the Wimbledon he never won, stayed low-key and turned to golf and stayed low-key. Last year, Justine Henin, seemingly at the peak of her career, abruptly announced her retirement at 25. She wanted a life, she said, or rather, she wanted to discover what life is all about.

Pete Sampras, whose record of 14 Grand Slams was broken by Federer on Sunday, played his last match at Wimbledon in 2002 (he retired in 2003), when he made an unceremonious exit after being defeated by the 145th ranked George Bastl of Switzerland. Sampras had never come back to Wimbledon — till Sunday night. Until he was coaxed back into exhibition matches recently, he appeared to lead a reclusive life. Sampras had given tennis his all and stood as the greatest player until he passed the mantle on to Federer on Sunday, in a manner of speaking.

Steffi Graf was invited to the opening ceremony of the new Wimbledon centre court roof in June this year. She hadn't been back there since she lost the final in 1999 to Lindsay Davenport, her ninth final appearance. It just wasn't fun anymore, she is supposed to have said, when she retired from tennis soon after. After 22 Grand Slam titles, really, what else was there to do?

The answer might come from the man she is now married to, Andre Agassi. For years, he was Pete Sampras's biggest rival. Agassi's 20-year career saw some great ups, some dramatic downs, but always a dogged determination to get on with it. If he had not developed a severe back problem, would he have retired in 2006 at the age of 36?

He had reinvented himself in 1997, having fallen to 122 in the rankings and played on the lowly Challenger circuit to become a contender again. His last Grand Slam was the 2003 Australian Open. Incidentally, Jimmy Connors reached his last US Open semi-final when he was 39.

And then there are Martina Navratilova and John McEnroe, who just never went away. Both supplemented their singles careers with doubles play and continued as long as they could. Both maintain their strong links to tennis and McEnroe is now a regular commentator. Tennis, it seems, was too much fun to forget and leave behind.

Federer appears to belong to that category. And now, having achieved as much as he has, he has nothing to prove and a huge panorama on which to have fun. The torture of 2008 and early 2009 are behind him, the lowest points in his career since he started his success string in 2003, when he won his first Wimbledon. Since then, he has managed to collect 15 Grand Slams.

It took Sampras 12 years to win 14 Slams. It took Federer six to win 15. He stands at the top, but, perhaps, if he spends the next few years fretting about it, the danger is that tennis might just get too much from him. But why should he?

The pressure is off, he is back on song, and now the rest of us can stop biting our nails and just revel in the pleasure of a majestic Federer in full flow. There are few sights more beautiful than that and now, Roger Federer has the chance to display his full array, without any bogeymen at his back. As us desis say, time to enjoy.