With no plans to retire, Roger Federer still eyeing Grand Slam glory despite Australian Open ouster

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World No.3 and 20-time Grand Slam winner Roger Federer has no plans to retire and still wants and feels can win a Grand Slam despite being schooled by Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open final on Thursday. Federer, who lost to Novak 6-7, 4-6, 3-6 at Melbourne Park, was at his peak to begin with but soon faded away with a host of unforced errors, thus, allowing Djokovic to come back and dump Federer out of the tournament.

Despite being 5-2 up and breaking Djokovic twice, the 38-year-old couldn't capitalise on the start and faded away real quick as Nole upped his of longer rallies and forcing Federer to make the errors.

Djokovic now leads their head-to-head record 27-23, including 11-6 at majors and Federer hasn't beaten him at a Grand Slam since since 2012 but he still believes that he has what it takes to win a Grand Slam.

"Yes, I believe so. After seeing my game and how am I playing, my answer is yes," Federer said.

"You don't know what is in store for the future. You don't know anything, especially given my age. But I am enthusiastic. I am happy with the way I feel and I have no plans to retire," he added.

However, he accepts that on the day, his game was not up to the mark.

“Today was horrible, to go through what I did. Nice entrance. Nice sendoff. And in between, it's one to forget, because you know you have a 3% chance to win. Once you can see it coming, that it's not going to work anymore, it's tough," he said.

Federer clearly played through the pain barrier and this is why he has the record of never handing an opponent a walkover across more than 400 Grand Slam matches and not retiring from any of his more than 1,500 career tour-level matches.

But, he said he believed he can win and went to the court believing that he can clinch the tie.

"I don't think I would have gone on court if I had no chance to win. We saw I was still able to make a match out of it," Federer said.

Djokovic also thanked Federer for putting up a show despite not being at his best.

"I just want to say, respect to Roger for coming out tonight. He was obviously hurt. "Wasn't at his best," Djokovic said.