Long night for Wimbledon’s eight-times champion

Roger Federer admits he woke up with a sore head after celebrating a record eighth Wimbledon triumph until 5am on Monday morning.

The 35-year-old also warned the game’s younger generation they need to vary their style if they want to stop the old-guard toasting more grand slam successes in the future.

Federer trounced seventh seed Marin Cilic 6-3 6-1 6-4 on Sunday to secure his 19th major crown and move clear of Pete Sampras and William Renshaw at the top of the all-time list of men’s Wimbledon champions.

The Swiss attended the traditional champions’ dinner with women’s winner Garbine Muguruza, although the pair did not dance as Federer said: “when there’s no music whatsoever it’s hard to get going”. He then partied with his team long into the night.

“My head is ringing,” Federer said at a press conference on Monday morning.

“I don’t know what I did last night. I drank too many different types of drinks I guess. But after the ball we went to a bar and there was about 30 or 40 friends there.

“We had a great time. I got to bed at 5 and I woke up and I didn’t feel good. The last hour I have finally felt somewhat OK again. But we had a good time.”

Federer’s victory on Centre Court continues a remarkable resurgence for the veteran, which has seen him win two grand slam titles in seven months, following a previous five-year drought.

It also marked another success for the older generation after Rafael Nadal won the French Open last month without dropping a set and Federer followed suit at the All England Club.

Asked how the next generation can crack their dominance, Federer said up-and-comers need to be more imaginative than just grinding from the baseline.

“They could choose not to play that way too, if the coaches taught them differently,” Federer said.

“You can easily get sucked into that mode where you don’t want to attack but then if you can’t volley you don’t want to go to the net. I’ve played almost every player here that wouldn’t serve and volley.

“It’s frightening to me, to see at this level when I look at the stats and go into whatever round it is and see the guy I’m going to face has played two per cent of serve and volley I’m like, ‘OK I know he’s not going to serve and volley’ which is great.”

On trying to copy traditional baseliners like Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic, Federer said: “They’re very different, Andy has a lot of variety in his way.

“But yes, a slug-fest with Andy and Novak and Rafa from the baseline – good luck if you’re 50 in the world. It’s not so simple to take them out.”

Federer turns 36 next month but, while adding the obvious caveats about his fitness, he said on Sunday his full intention was to defend his SW19 title next year.

He will now turn his attention to the American swing this autumn and the US Open, where he will be among the favourites to win grand slam number 20.

“The target is to enjoy being Wimbledon champion for a year and Australian Open champion,” Federer said.

“I haven’t set sights on a number of grand slams that I have to or want to achieve. I never really had that.

“I was very content at 17 I must tell you so of course I was going to be happier at 18 and I’m even happier at 19 .

“I think for me it’s really about enjoying myself, staying healthy and then we’ll see what happens.”