Roger Federer looking more and more like Wimbledon favorite

The 2017 French Open was one of the most exciting tournaments in recent memory, even if it ended with yet another Rafael Nadal victory. It’s not likely Roger Federer could have handed Nadal his third ever loss on the clay of Roland Garros, but he didn’t even get a chance to try as he skipped the majority of the clay court season.

Federer, 35, is in the twilight years of his career and he announced prior to the French Open that he would not be participating so he could rest up and get himself prepared for the grass court season. Federer has only one French Open title to his name, but he’s raised the title at Wimbledon seven times.

He’s indisputably one of the greatest tennis players in history, but there doesn’t seem to be much time left for him to get another Grand Slam win. Another warning sign came up when Federer lost his first match in Stuttgart recently, falling to Tommy Haas on his first grass court match of the season.

Federer missed multiple break point opportunities and was showing signs of some serious rust. Is Federer becoming more beatable on grass, or is he just shaking off that rust?

He’s currently taking part in the Halle Open, which will serve as his primary tune-up for Wimbledon, which gets underway in July. Federer made it quickly past his first opponent, Yuichi Sugita, in just 52 minutes. At about the same time, Andy Murray was losing at Queen’s Club, falling to Jordan Thompson.

Federer was fast, aggressive, and made few mistakes in his opener. Sugita was never expected to push him, but the fact that Federer looked far different from the player who lost in Stuttgart is huge. Many are already talking about Federer’s potential to win yet another title at Wimbledon.

Can he do it at 35 years old?

The field at Wimbledon will be interesting to see. Nadal did not take part in Queen’s after his run to another French Open title. Novak Djokovic was embarrassed at the hands of up-and-comer Dominic Thiem, a man Nadal completely and utterly dominated in the following round.

Djokovic has mentioned potentially taking a break from the sport after his loss to Thiem. Meanwhile, some other top players have also struggled. Stan Wawrinka lost in straight sets to Feliciano Lopez on Queen’s and is dealing with injuries. Milos Raonic, a finalist at Wimbledon a year ago, lost to Thanasi Kokkinakis, the world’s 698th-ranked player, on the grass court at Queen’s.

And, of course, there was Murray’s subpar play against Thompson. Any one of the top players mentioned above are capable of beating Federer on grass, and are capable of doing so at Wimbledon.

But they will have to be at their best, and that’s not guaranteed.