Despite Recent Early Exits, Federer and Serena Williams Like Their Chances

A couple of 32-year-olds who have each won 17 Grand Slam titles weighed in Saturday on the prospects of reaching No. 18 by the end of the Wimbledon tournament, which begins Monday. While Roger Federer was talkative, Serena Williams was terse.

"I feel like I have a very good chance again this year," Federer said in a contemplative interview that included some lightheartedness about his stinging second-round defeat here a year ago to 116th-ranked Sergiy Stakhovsky.

Stakhovsky is on the opposite side of this year's draw, and Federer related a joke he said they shared in the locker room: "We can only face each other in the finals this year." (Six players to watch out for in Wimbledon 2014)

Federer said that he did not dwell on last year's loss, which ended a nine-year run of 36 Grand Slam quarterfinals. He moved past it "a week after Wimbledon," he said. (Best chance yet for Roger Federer?)

Williams lost in the fourth round of the Australian Open to Ana Ivanovic. And four weeks after winning an eye-opening four games in a straight-sets smackdown at the hands of the 20-year-old Garbine Muguruza in the second round of the French Open, Williams was asked how soon she had gotten over missing the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam event for the second time this year.

"Who says I was over it?" she said, despite evidence that she seemed to be having a good old time making the celebrity rounds back home in South Florida. "Knowing me, no."

While the French Open proceeded without her - "I didn't watch this one, in particular, but usually I do," she said - Williams hit the beach in Miami with Caroline Wozniacki, a heavily scrutinized first-round loser after an unceremonious breakup with her fiance, the golfer Rory McIlroy.

With Wozniacki, Williams was photographed in a leopard-print, one-piece swimsuit and, in the same attire, showed up on the TMZ website after stumbling upon a beach wedding and posing with the bride and groom. She and Wozniacki also hit a Miami Heat playoff game, partying afterward with Greg Oden.

"I love Caro," she said of Wozniacki. "We have a great time together. You know, she was ..."

Williams paused and added, "Just trying to be a positive influence in her life."

Williams' charismatically playful side apparently remained in South Florida, based on Saturday's news conference, during which her answers were abrupt and aloof, the full Popovich. It was not surprising, though. When Williams is embarrassed or seething after an unexpected defeat, that's when she can be her most dangerous - locked in and prepared to speak mostly with her racket.

In a women's game so lacking in consistent big hitters and challengers  with Grand Slam championship fiber, few would be foolish enough to question Williams' front-running status here in a tournament she has won five times. She is, after all, the top seed, despite whatever momentum Maria Sharapova - who at 17 gained fame by beating Williams here in 2004 but has not won the tournament since - might have after winning the French Open.

Serving up a storm: Serena Williams is confident of finding form on the grass courts at Wimbledon.

© AP

That said, another early exit just might be enough for people to at least wonder if age is dragging Williams toward the shadows and might keep her from mounting a run on the career Grand Slam title leaders Margaret Court (24), Steffi Graf (22) and Helen Wills Moody (19) or the appropriately deadlocked Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert (18) directly above her.

As to how prepared she is to tackle the grass courts after playtime on the Miami sand, Williams said: "I feel good. I feel like every year is another year."

Was she practicing in Florida?

"Yes," she said.

With Richard, her father?

"Yes," she said.

Fortunately for Williams, any lack of dominance would have to extend over a fairly significant spell before she would be discounted almost as universally as Federer has been - and not for the first time - since his last slam success, here at Wimbledon two years ago.

Beyond a rising tide of young players capable of ambushing him early - as Ernests Gulbis of Latvia did in the fourth round at the French - Federer must always deal with the specter of higher-ranked Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, both in their prime, in addition to the defending champion, Andy Murray.

Federer wrote off 2013 as a year sabotaged by injuries that precipitated crises of confidence. And this is Wimbledon, where he is a seven-time champion: "I feel like if I play my game, it's more on my racket. Whereas at the French, I feel like I am slightly more dependent on Rafa. I know he's been so dominant over there that it goes through him regardless."

The truth is, Nadal has beaten Federer in their last five matches, four on hardcourts, and 23 of 33 overall. But Nadal has had back problems the past few weeks and little match time on grass; Djokovic has had wrist issues and has not won a major in his last five tries; Murray has not regained peak form since back surgery nine months ago.

"This year I feel all the options are there," Federer said.

Saying it is one thing, just as Williams insisted, "I've been doing just a lot of training, just working out, trying to get ready for the next event, which so happened to be Wimbledon."

Timing in this sport can be everything. Around 32, even for the recently dominant, it can all of a sudden begin to run out.

© 2014 New York Times News Service