ROGER Federer surpassed the achievements of Pete Sampras and William Renshaw yesterday to become Wimbledon’s first-ever eight-time male singles winner – then said there were no guarantees that he would still be around next year to defend his title.

The Swiss, who will be closing in on his 37th birthday by the time next year’s tournament comes around, ran out a comprehensive 6-3, 6-1, 6-4 winner against an injury-hit Marin Cilic of Croatia. Having taken six months off last year to recover from a knee injury and skipped Roland Garros earlier this year, he said that at his age nothing was set in stone.

“Ever since I had the year I had last year, I do only think probably like a year ahead of time, with my schedule, fitness schedule, tournaments I would like to play,” he added. “I totally see myself playing here this time next year. But because it’s far away, because of what happened last year, I just wanted to take the opportunity to make the crowd understand that, while I hope that I’m back, there’s never a guarantee, especially not at 35, 36. But the goal is definitely to be here again next year to try and defend.”

Federer joked that he could still be playing here aged 40 – if he was cryogenically frozen. In truth, after a match which saw Cilic break down in tears as he struggled with a blister on his foot, he claimed to have surprised even himself with his second Grand Slam of the season and had no idea how long this striking Indian summer in his career will last. “I guess you would have laughed if I told you I was going to win two slams this year.,” he said. “I also didn’t believe that I was going to win two this year. It’s incredible. I don’t know how much longer it’s going to last.”

While he had always said making history was “merely an extra motivation”, doing so at Wimbledon was “super special”. “Wimbledon was always my favourite tournament, will always be my favourite tournament,” said Federer. “My heroes walked the grounds here and walked the courts here. Number eight obviously means a lot to me because at that level, to be part of Wimbledon history, is truly amazing.”

While the Swiss served notice of his intent at this venue by knocking Sampras out of this tournament in 2001 - he lost to Tim Henman in the next round - he said he never dreamed of beating his record. "I hoped to have a chance maybe one day to be in a Wimbledon finals and have a chance to win the tournament,” he said. “But winning eight is not something you can ever aim for, in my opinion. If you do, I don’t know, you must have so much talent and parents and the coaches that push you from the age of three on, who think of you like a project. I was not that kid. I was just really a normal guy growing up in Basel, hoping to make a career on the tennis tour."

Federer, who is due in Glasgow in November to play the 'Andy Murray Live' charity event, said that only the Scot and his team can say whether the 30-year-old, who has been struggling with a hip problem, should follow his lead and play more sparingly. “It doesn’t mean because I took a break that everybody should take that break, to be quite honest,” said Federer. “Some players just need to play every other day, otherwise they feel like they completely lose touch with the racquet and the ball, the body goes all funny on them. I think it’s only himself with his team who knows best. I can’t give advice in this regard.

“But for me, a break really worked wonders," he added. "I am still surprised it did. I had to take some tough decisions along the way, like pulling out of the clay-court season. In hindsight it looks so simple: you do that to win Wimbledon. But it’s not. I’m sure he’ll take the right decisions. He’s got a lot of years left to play if he’s in the mood. We’ll see a great Andy Murray moving forward.”