Hard to envisage Federer win 18th Grand Slam, says US legend McEnroe

American tennis legend John McEnroe has said that he believed that Swiss maestro Roger Federer is showing signs of slowing down and will find it difficult to add to his record 17 Grand Slam titles.

According to Stuff.co.nz, Federer heads into next week's US Open seeded seventh, his first time outside the top three in any slam in the past decade, and his recent form offers no suggestion of a quick improvement at Flushing Meadows in New York.

Although McEnroe, a four-time US Open champion and three-times Wimbledon winner, refused to rule Federer out of contention for the latter stages of the tournament, he felt that Federer may be far from having a 18th Grand Slam despite his experience and ability.

According to McEnroe, he finds its difficult to envisage Federer being able to go through all seven rounds at New York and beat at least two of the three top players like Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic, although he admitted that the Swiss ace may use the fact that he had won 17 Grand Slams to achieve victory at the US Open.

McEnroe further said that the 32-year-old Federer will now have to decide how badly he wants a 18th Grand Slam and risk getting lower down the ranks, adding that he can shut everyone up if he were able to go all the way at the Open and still keep himself in the running.

McEnroe also felt that Federer has lost some of his sharpness and balance.

According to the report, beaten by the 116th-ranked Sergiy Stakhovsky in the second round at Wimbledon, Federer also lost to Federico Delbonis in the Hamburg semi-finals and 55th-ranked Daniel Brands on home soil in Gstaad.

He fared a little better in Cincinnati last week, reaching the quarter-finals where he was beaten by eventual winner and US Open favourite Nadal, the report added.