Roger Federer's body has been saying no for the past two years, but Pat Cash is hopeful the 39-year-old will return for another run on the ATP Tour.
After suffering a setback to his longstanding knee injury during Wimbledon, the 20-time grand slam champion has this week withdrawn from the Tokyo Olympics.
Despite being without much match practice – playing just four tournaments before Wimbledon after coming back from two knee surgeries - Federer was able to make the quarter-finals at All England Club.
However, he suffered a demoralising loss to Hubert Hurkacz in straight sets in the last eight that promoted a fresh round of speculation over his future in the game.
Cash, who won Wimbledon in 1987, hopes Federer will be back despite his recent injury woe.
He told Stats Perform: "First of all, let's hope that Roger Federer will keep going.
"I think he can, I think he just needs more matches and probably needs to make sure that he's able to last.
"But your body starts saying no at some stage and it's been saying that for a couple of years now for him."
Wimbledon winner Novak Djokovic is now level with Rafael Nadal and Federer on 20 slams.
Cash believes judging the Swiss star purely on grand slam titles is not a fair measure of his brilliance, pointing instead to his astonishing record totals of 58 major quarter-final berths and 46 semis.
"He has been the most consistent player that I think we've ever seen," Cash said. "He may not end up with as many grand slams but his consistency is just outrageous.
"All the other players have lost early in grand slams, the Djokovics, the [Andy] Murrays, then the Nadals had lost early in grand slams, Roger just doesn't do it.
"Of all the titles that he's won, I think for me, his most impressive record is how many semi-finals or quarter-finals in grand slams in a row that he got to. It was something ridiculous for 10 or 11 years.
"He never failed at any grand slams and that is just absolutely mind blowing."
However long he tries to play on, Cash insists nothing can sour the memories of an extraordinary career from Federer.
Cash added: "Obviously, he raised the bar as far as the standard of tennis has gone.
"The other players really had to catch up. Novak admitted it, he said, 'Without Roger there, leading the way, I wouldn't have been as good a player as I could have been'.
"That's the gold standard of Roger Federer over his career and I'm not sure anybody will be as consistent as him in tennis history.
"He's just phenomenal the way he plays, and we all of course enjoy the style, his movement. And he's a class act off the court as well."
Federer's status for the US Open, which begins on August 30, is unclear, with Djokovic looking to take the outright lead for major titles and achieve a historic calendar year Grand Slam.
Draper out of Miami Open following retirement against Alcaraz at Indian Wells
Jack Draper has pulled out of the Miami Open due to an abdominal injury that forced him to retire from his match against Carlos Alcaraz at Indian Wells.
The Briton suffered a tear to his oblique muscle during his fourth round encounter with the Spaniard, forcing him to bring the match to a premature end in the second set.
While Alcaraz went on to win the tournament and reclaim his position as world number one, Draper is now set for a spell on the sidelines.
The 21-year-old has decided to withdraw from Miami, in order to focus on making a full recovery rather than risk aggravating the issue.
The world number 43 struggled for fitness during the 2021 season, but played 22 events last year and reached the quarter-finals of the Canadian Open.
Alcaraz won his first ATP Masters 1000 title in Miami last year by beating Casper Ruud in the final.
After being awarded a bye into the second round, he will face either Facundo Bagnis or a qualifier and could take on Andy Murray in round three as he eyes a Sunshine Double.
How the world has changed since Rafael Nadal was last out of the top 10
Rafael Nadal dropped out of the world's top 10 men's tennis rankings on Monday, the first time he has not been a presence there since his arrival on April 25, 2005.
After struggling with a hip injury since the Australian Open, Nadal has been unable to play much in the early months of 2023, causing his ranking to drop to 13th.
The 22-time grand slam winner has been an ever-present among the elite of the men's game for the best part of two decades.
Having spent half of his life as a top-10 player, Nadal will be determined to get back there once his injury has healed and prove there is still plenty of life in him yet, though may also be a tad sad to realise that new world number one and compatriot Carlos Alcaraz wasn't even two years old in April 2005.
In the interest of nostalgia, Stats Perform has taken a gander back at how the world looked then, and what has changed since.
The Special One makes his mark
Jose Mourinho made quite the impact when he became Chelsea manager at the start of the 2004-05 season, guiding the then Roman Abramovich-owned Blues to their first Premier League crown, and first English top-flight title since 1954-55.
After coining his own moniker of the "Special One" at his first press conference, Mourinho set about living up to it, also adding the EFL Cup in his first season at Stamford Bridge.
Two days after Nadal had entered the top 10 though, Chelsea hosted Liverpool in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final, drawing 0-0 at home, before losing 1-0 in the return leg at Anfield to suffer elimination at the hands of their Premier League rivals.
Mourinho did not take kindly to Luis Garcia's goal being awarded, with goal-line technology not available back then, something the now 60-year-old brought up again as recently as last week.
The Portuguese coach went on to have a storied career that is still going, having won the inaugural Europa Conference League with Roma last season.
He remains as outspoken as ever though, aiming a dig at Roma's rivals Lazio after their elimination from Europe ahead of the Rome derby on Sunday, which Lazio won 1-0 before Biancocelesti defender Alessio Romagnoli revealed: "We were already very energised before this match, his quotes hyped us up even more."
Tennant's Who-per
It was also a different time in television, pre-dating the streaming services so many rely on today, not least tennis players on the road, such as Nadal.
David Tennant was announced as the 10th doctor in Doctor Who, while the first UK series of The Apprentice came to a conclusion and adult-themed animated series Family Guy returned due to popular demand after initially being cancelled following its third season.
Nearly 18 years later, Tennant has reprised his role in Doctor Who, The Apprentice is airing its 17th series in the UK and Family Guy is airing its 21st season in the United States.
The more things change, the more they stay the same... but you can at least now stream all three shows on demand.
Charles and Camilla get married
In April 2005, Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles tied the knot, getting married at a civil ceremony at Windsor Guildhall.
It is fair to say quite a bit has happened in the British royal family since then, with Princes William and Harry both getting married to fairly different receptions.
With the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in September at the age of 96, King Charles III took the throne, and will have his coronation on May 6.
After Alcaraz became the youngest player to end the year as world number one in December, King Charles III will officially become the oldest person to accede to the British throne.
When Nokia ruled the world
If there is one area that has advanced almost immeasurably in the last 18 years, it is phone technology.
In 2005, it was still around two years before the dawn of the smartphone. Statistically, it is likely that even stars like Nadal had to make do with a Nokia 1110, the best-selling phone of the year.
Flip-phones were also becoming popular, with the Motorola RAZR V3 and Samsung Z500 among them, and both companies have revived the design in recent times, with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 one of the biggest selling phones of today.
Who knows, perhaps Nadal's superfast reflexes and anticipation came from logging hours and hours of practice playing Snake.
Let's see Alcaraz do that.
Nadal out of world top 10 for first time since 2005
Rafael Nadal has dropped out of the world's top 10 men's tennis rankings for the first time in almost 18 years.
Nadal has been in the top 10 ever since April 2005, but on Monday fell to 13th in the ATP rankings after injury forced him to miss Indian Wells.
The 36-year-old's run came to an end on the same day that teenage compatriot Carlos Alcaraz reclaimed his number one spot from Novak Djokovic after beating Daniil Medvedev in Sunday's Indian Wells final.
Nadal is yet to recover from the hip injury that has hampered him since his Australian Open exit to Mackenzie McDonald in January.
Though the 22-time grand slam winner could return to the top 10 once he is back in action, it will not be in the next month as he has also withdrawn from the Miami Masters.
The latest ATP rankings saw Djokovic drop to second place, while Medvedev moved from sixth to fifth, Felix Auger-Aliassime leapt from 10th to sixth, Hubert Hurkacz nudged into the top 10 as he moved up two places to ninth, while Taylor Fritz dropped from fifth to 10th.
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