Matt Cronin is reporting that Fed might be pulling the plug on his 2008 season, even withdrawing from the YEC, now that it's virtually impossible that he could end the year at #1:
Just in case you are wondering, with Roger Federer pulling out of Stockholm and with his likely pull out of TMS Madrid, the question of who will end the year at No. 1 is about to come to an end. At this point Federer would have to win Madrid, Basel, Paris and the Masters Cup and not see Nadal reach a quarterfinals to get his top spot back, and that's highly unlikely. The word off the court is that USO champ Federer might be considering pulling the plug on his season, which would take a lot of drama out of TMC Shanghai.
That's really too bad. With how crazy the Grand Slams were this year, I think we need a proper YEC on the men's side to settle the score. Wouldn't Roger want to play in order to reassert himself for 2009? If he were to win the YEC, beating Rafa/Nole/Muzzah/JMDP, on the way, wouldn't that pretty much erase the memories of the sub par first half of the season and give him the momentum going into Australia?
