For those hoping Roger Federer would have a change of heart about his retirement decision ... the 20-time Grand Slam champion tells TMZ Sports it's time to give up hope -- 'cause he's adamant he's really done playing for good.
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00:00Welcome back, TMZ Sports. Mike and Mojo. Mojo, you hear that noise, you know what time
00:20it is. Time for some GOAT talk. We saw Jon Jones there, Mojo. We saw LeBron James. Let's
00:27go to the world of tennis. That guy right there who a lot of people believe is the greatest
00:32tennis player of all time, Roger Federer. But he's now retired. 2022, Mojo, hung up
00:38the racket. 20 single major titles. Again, one of, if not the greatest player of all
00:45time. Could he come back? There's been a lot of talk and a lot of speculation since he
00:49retired that he could make, he could mount a comeback and challenge some of the young
00:56guys, you know, Alcarez and the likes, Mojo. We saw Roger Federer in New York City and
01:03forget the speculation. We asked him the question straight up. Could you come back, Roger? Don't
01:09count on it.
01:10Hi, Mr. Federer. How are you? How's retirement? I heard that you're pretty good at golf too
01:16and you put it out there like, hey, any suggestions? Did anyone reach out to you and kind of give
01:21you like some feedback?
01:22Do you ever get the urge to kind of like come out of retirement? No. So it's final. Pretty
01:33clear, Mojo. No, happily retired. I don't think he's coming back.
01:37Zero hesitation on that one, Babcock. Zero gray area. And I'm glad that was his answer
01:46because that's where he needs to leave this thing. Stay retired. My brother, you had an
01:53incredible career. I mean, obviously if we're talking about you on goat talk, only the goats
01:59make it on goat talk. But what does that do for his legacy? If he comes back and he's
02:04just average, right? I mean, that takes away that, that superhuman status that we associate
02:11with our top notch athletes. And I think players know this. I mean, when you're in
02:17retirement, you lose your gifts quick. If you're not using it, you lose it, man. And
02:23you're not in your, your training. You get older, you get less strong, less quick, less
02:28in shape. You don't recover as fast. So the uphill battle that you're facing to come back
02:34once you've been out of the game for even just one year at that age, I mean, my goodness,
02:40that is a tough situation. And again, if he was an average player, there's less pressure
02:45here and there's less risk to your legacy. But if you're Roger Federer, nah, man, you
02:50got to leave this one where it is. And his head is in the right place for sure.