Roger Federer retirement warning sent by expert - legend has 'severe' problem
ROGER FEDERER is in a 'severe' run of form and is feeling the downside of cutting back his schedule, according to tennis expert David Law.
The 37-year-old is renowned for carefully managing his workload to avoid over-straining his body.
But that is now backfiring with Federer being dumped out of tournaments early - often to shock opponents - meaning he isn't playing many matches.
Since winning the Stuttgart Open, Federer has twice lost to Borna Coric, most recently in last week's Shanghai Masters.
At Wimbledon he fell to defeat to Kevin Anderson - despite being two sets up - while John Millman shocked him at the US Open.
It has left Federer trophy-less since June and Law has warned fans that retirement could be round the corner.
"Believe it or not, one day he won't play tennis because that's called getting old," he said on the Tennis Podcast.
"He's defied father time for an incredible amount of time and he may well still have a lot more left in him.
"I'm curious because there have been some losses this year. There have been some performance that have made you think he doesn't look quite like he did a year ago, or certainly the start of the year.
"I wonder if it will be disappointments like that or whether it will be something more pre-planned in his mind that he's aiming for.
"His record from the Australian Open to Indian Wells this year was 69 wins, six losses. But since Miami of this year he has won 22 matches and lost six matches."
Federer is due to skip the Paris Masters before returning to play in his hometown Basel later this month.
"It's a pretty severe fall away of form. You're not going to match necessarily of 69 and six, but still," Law added.
"The time off, I wonder if that's now starting to work against him. He's not winning as many matches so it's not quite the same as going and winning two tournaments and having five weeks off, then winning two more.
"If you're not winning that many matches then you're basically not playing."