British No.1 Andy Murray has said that he feels that defending Wimbledon champion Roger Federer may never again regain his levels of consistency and domination like before, following his exit from the tournament on the heels of Rafael Nadal.
Murray has no top ten players left in his half of the draw following the exits of three of his main challengers Federer, Nadal and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who lost to Sergiy Stakhovsky, Steve Darcis and Ernests Gulbis respectively, the Independent reports.
According to the Scot, even though Federer still played some top-quality tennis this year, he may never be as consistent as he had been for the last decade, although the Olympic and US Open champion added that he expected his Swiss rival to bounce back from the loss and become a dangerous force at the US Open this year.
Stating that it would be foolish to rule out either Federer or Nadal in the future, Murray, who has never played a match at Wimbledon when neither of the other two have not been in the tournament, said that he is confident that the duo would be back competing for Grand Slams in the future.
Murray further said that despite critics writing off Nadal after Wimbledon last year with his injury, he came back with a bang and made nine finals in a row, adding that with good performances from Darcis and Stakhovsky, and lack of form from Federer and Nadal, the duo had to face an early exit from the tournament.
However, Murray insisted that he will not make the mistake of being complacent, saying that like Darcis, Stakhovsky and Gulbis defeated Nadal, Federer and Tsonga, he may also lose to Spain's Tommy Robredo in the upcoming next round, adding that such things are common in sports.
Stating that people are more shocked at the losses of the top players given their consistency for the last eight to ten years, Murray, however, said that he is not worrying about these factors and is just focusing on his upcoming match with Robredo.