"It's a tough time. He's 32 and
not playing his best tennis by any means," Laver told reporters at
Melbourne Park, where he launched his autobiography "Rod Laver - A
memoir" on Thursday.
"It's sometimes hard to analyze someone of that ability. But once in a while it happened to me where for no reason ... you're just flat. What's happened? What is it that made you play your best tennis?
"Maybe that's going through a little bit of Roger's mind because I saw him play at Wimbledon. The first match he played he was just perfect, great. And in the second, he loses a match which he could probably win with his eyes closed."
Laver, the only player to win the calendar Grand Slam twice, says Federer will not retire from tennis after a bad season.
"Roger has had a great career, and I don't foresee him saying he's going to hang his racquets up because he's had a bad year," Laver said.
The 75-year-old also says that Federer's recent lean period is just a form issue rather than an indication of permanent decline.
"I think he's going to look at this next January - and you might be surprised when you look at the champion of next year at Melbourne Park.
"It might be Roger. He's playing good tennis but sometimes it's a matter of winning the right points. You don't have to win them all, just the right ones.
"He seemed like he was getting into the right position of winning the right points, but not winning them."
Date: 24th October 2013
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