Hmm, who is to say what is really hampering and what is not? At what level is one too hampered? Is one only too hampered if one doesn't play? What if they can't practice or train properly between matches and tournaments? What if one plays on even if hampered, because they don't want to quit, because they know that others, like tournaments and fans are counting on their participation?
What is too hampering for one, may not be for another. Outsiders can only judge by what we are told and perhaps observation.
Roger Federer has had chronic back problems since he was a young teenager.
They prevented him from going into military service, and serving in civil service instead, but would not generally stop him playing tennis at a high level, though they might have certainly hampered him at times.
That's primarily because the military requires a longer duration of activity with extra weight on one's back, something the doctors said he couldn't take..
One can't really say how much his back has affected him in his career. Only he, his family, and maybe some of his team and close friends would know.
Most can only see the rare more severe times, when he has taken the rare MTO, or with the rare withdrawal.
Here is an account of his back injury in 2003 in the round of 16 vs Feli Lopez at Wimbledon, on his way to his first major title. That occurrence would almost be repeated exactly in 2012, against Xavier Malisse.
In less severe situations, some astute observers may guess that something might be bothering him, when parts of his play seem quite a bit off, his serve, his stretching to hit balls on his forehand, etc., but Federer will not usually let on that he was bothered until later, sometimes much later. He's old school.
He played on in 2013, his poorest season since 2001, with only 1 title and 45 match wins in 62 matches in 17 tournaments played, his lowest matches played since his sophomore year in 1999 when he played 14 tournaments and 30 matches.
In 2014, at Indian Wells, he finally gave
this detailed description of the prolonged back problems he faced in 2013 since Indian Wells that year.
One should realize that he played on at times in 2013, and other points in his career when he probably should have withdrawn from tournaments, and he said he wasn't going to do it anymore if he didn't feel fit enough to compete.
Since then, he withdrew from a scheduled match due to the back for only the 3rd time in his career, after
1220 matches, to Djokovic in the final of the 2014 World Tour Finals after playing more matches (
83) than any player on tour in 2014 at age 33.
He would barely train, but recover enough to play his 84th (losing), and 85th (winning) singles match of the year to help win the Davis Cup. In 2014, he made 11 finals, winning 5 and losing 5, with 1 withdrawal in 17 tournaments played.
He still has
0 retirements in his career after starting a match in
1307 tour level matches.
Nobody in the history of the Open Era has played so many matches without a single retirement. McEnroe had 1 in 1073 singles matches. Edberg? 2 in 1071 matches.
Lucky? Maybe, not to have a very serious debilitating injury that cuts short a career. Determined to finish a match, even through illness or with the body struggling? Absolutely no doubt.
Still, one wonders how good Federer might have been with a good healthy back to start with..
We just don't know. He would have had to take part in military service, and maybe something else would go wrong. Maybe his serve and play would be even better, even more consistent and dominating. Who knows?
But his back hasn't been his only issue, just the chronic one. Recall that he tore ankle ligaments in Oct. 2005, forcing him to miss 3 fall tournaments. His lower leg was in a cast for two weeks, wearing crutches.
But with intense therapy, he came back in November with an ankle brace in an attempt to play in a decimated Master's Cup on the carpet of Shanghai, and saved the tournament from being a total shambles, spectator wise, when Safin & Roddick (backs), Nadal (foot), Hewitt (baby), Agassi (ankle after 1st RR match) had to withdraw.
So Roger played, struggling, but beating Nalbandian, Ljubicic, Coria, each in 3 sets in the RR, he bageled Gaudio in straights in the semis, made it to the best of 5 final against Nalbandian, and lost in a deciding set tiebreaker after being 2 sets ahead..
It was his first loss in a final after winning a record
24 consecutive finals.
He played the next tournaments, 2006 Doha and 2006 Australian Open in the ankle brace and won the titles.
Still wearing the ankle brace in his next tournament, Dubai, he lost to Rafa in the final, breaking his record streak of 56 match wins on hard court.
How serious was his bout of mononucleosis in 2008? He said much later that he had felt extremely fatigued but didn't know why, but played anyway. How many others would have stopped playing? It's difficult to tell if he can put up with a lot more than other players, and continues on anyway with a never-say-die attitude, or maybe his problems are just not as severe.
How many other problems did he have that we don't know about? Maybe he'll write a book and tell us, maybe not.
One can do these "what if" exercises with almost any player.
Every serious athlete, no matter how gifted physically, how smooth, how healthy, has physical and health issues from time to time. Some more than others. Some are more obvious, some less. Some reveal more, some less. Some players stop playing, some play on.
Each player knows more about what has truly hampered them more than we will likely ever know. And from this writer's perspective, that is as it should be.
Respectfully,
masterclass
