Melbourne,
\nAge-defying Roger Federer says after winning his third Grand Slam title in a year he has \u201cno idea\u201d how long he will continue playing.<\/p>\n
The 36-year-old Swiss marvel continues to defy the years and attrition rate, reaching his 30th Grand Slam decider and claiming his sixth Australian crown and 20th Grand Slam title.<\/p>\n
The world No.2 won back-to-back Australian Opens by beating Marin Cilic 6-2, 6-7 (5\/7), 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 on Sunday, dropping his only sets of a stress-free tournament.<\/p>\n
Federer, who downed great rival Rafael Nadal in a classic five-set Australian final last year, eased through this year\u2019s event with five of his seven matches finishing on or under two hours and he spent just a total of 13hr 53min on court.<\/p>\n
Asked after his Melbourne triumph how much longer he can continue at the summit of men\u2019s tennis, he replied: \u201cNo idea.<\/p>\n
Honest, I don\u2019t know. I have no idea.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve won three slams now in 12 months. I can\u2019t believe it myself. I just got to keep a good schedule, stay hungry, then maybe good things can happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Federer said his age didn\u2019t come into it when questions were raised about his continuing longevity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think age is an issue, it\u2019s just a number,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I need to be very careful in my planning, really decide beforehand what are my goals, what are my priorities.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s what\u2019s going to dictate how successful I will be.\u201d But he added: \u201cExciting times ahead. As a professional, it\u2019s what we do. But I\u2019m happy I\u2019m in that position right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
His emotional victory in Sunday put him alongside Novak Djokovic and Australian Roy Emerson with the most Australian titles at six.<\/p>\n
While his long-time rivals Nadal, Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka and Andy Murray have injury concerns heading into the new season, not only did Federer blaze on into the final but he finished stronger than Cilic, who is seven years younger, in the fifth set.<\/p>\n
Federer was the oldest man at 36 to reach the Australian Open final since Australians Ken Rosewall (37) and Mal Anderson (36) played in the 1972 decider.<\/p>\n
He explained his circumstances which allowed him to play on.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think by not overplaying, not playing every tournament possible. I enjoy practice. Not minding the travel. Having a great team around me, they make it possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end it\u2019s seeing that my parents are incredibly proud and happy that I\u2019m still doing it. They enjoy coming to tournaments. That makes me happy and play better.\u201d Federer is the father of two sets of twins, Myla Rose and Charlene Riva and Leo and Lenny with wife Mirka, a former player he met at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Melbourne, Age-defying Roger Federer says after winning his third Grand Slam title in a year he has \u201cno idea\u201d how long he will continue playing. The 36-year-old Swiss marvel continues to defy the years and attrition rate, reaching his 30th Grand Slam decider and claiming his sixth Australian crown and 20th Grand Slam title. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20212,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20211"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20213,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20211\/revisions\/20213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}