Roger Federer recently declared that he would shortly be retiring due to

Roger Federer, the youthful Swiss player known for his racket skills who went on to become one of the most skilled sportsmen in the world and a member of the generation that ruled tennis for twenty years, declared his retirement from competition on Thursday.

“I have played over 1,500 matches over the course of 24 years; I am 41 years old,” Roger Federer stated in a social media audio recording. “I’ve had more compassionate treatment from tennis than I could have imagined, but I now need to know when to call it quits on my competitive career.”

Federer retires from the game with one of the most impressive competitive resumes in history: 103 tour singles championships, 20 Grand Slam singles titles, 310 weeks at the top of the rankings, and a record six tour finals wins. What’s perhaps most amazing about his lengthy career is that he never had to withdraw from a game he had started due to an injury.

His choice is in line with Serena Williams’s, providing the tennis world with the strongest evidence to date of its generational shift toward younger players like Carlos Alcaraz, who captured the U.S. Open on Sunday.

Williams, who turns 41 later this month, stated that she was “growing” away from competition, but she did leave the door open for a return following her final run in the U.S. Open this year. After battling through years of ailments, Roger Federer made his decision more clearly, which means that the Big Three of men’s tennis—Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, Federer’s longtime rivals—will soon number just two.

But not before their aging bodies allow them to be together for one last time.

As part of his legacy to the game he once dominated alone until Nadal and Djokovic changed the tide of power, Federer said that he will play in his final competitive match next week in London at the Laver Cup, an annual team competition he helped found.

Against them, he experienced several of his most heartbreaking defeats as well as some of his greatest victories. Federer’s vulnerability—the significant matches he lost and the emotions he frequently shed in triumph and defeat—was a contributing factor in his continuing appeal.

Federer was a friend and adversary, and Nadal posted on Twitter, “It’s a sad day for me personally and for sports throughout the world.” Nadal also mentioned how fortunate he was to have shared “so many beautiful moments on and off the court.”

Federer is slated to compete for Team Europe at the Laver Cup, which is modeled after the Ryder Cup in golf, alongside Andy Murray, a British player who is also a prominent player in this remarkable era, Nadal, and Djokovic.

None traversed the world’s courts with the elegance of Roger Federer.

He flowed more than he moved. As at ease diving for an overhead pass as he was patrolling the baseline and diving for his trademark inside-out forehand, he kept his eyes on the contact point long after the ball had left the court, suggesting that his quickness and court awareness gave him an advantage over his competitors in terms of time to execute his skill.

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In 2005, Federer defended his championship at the U.S. Open.Give credit…Photo by Robert Caplin/The New York Times