Roger Federer pulls out of French Open after three match wins, and tennis Twitter has takes

WATCH: Highlights of Roger Federer's third-round win from Saturday, which ended on Sunday morning local time.

After Roger Federer made a statement on the court with his performance against Dominik Koepfer—an experience-laden effort that proved the 39-year-old is still a contender at the game's highest level—he made an implicit statement off it, in his press conference. Hints were dropped that, despite advancing, the physical toll that the third-round match took on him might be enough to warrant a precautionary withdrawal from Roland Garros, given Federer's recent knee surgeries and well-established target: the grass-court season, i.e. Wimbledon.

“We go through these matches, you know, we analyze them highly and look on what's next and will do the same tonight and tomorrow latest, because I need to decide if I keep on playing or not or is it not too much risk at this moment to keep on pushing or is this just a perfect way to just take a rest,” said Federer in press in the early morning. “Because I don't have the week in between here and Halle, like normal, to see, like, what's best now if you count back from Wimbledon and so forth.

Just a few hours later, on Sunday afternoon in Paris, another statement was made: one from the tournament itself, confirming that Federer has indeed decided to pull out of the clay-court Slam:

After discussions with my team, I’ve decided I will need to pull out of Roland Garros today. After two knee surgeries and over a year of rehabilitation, it’s important that I listen to my body and make sure I don’t push myself too quickly on my road to recovery. I am thrilled to have gotten three matches under my belt. There is no greater feeling than being back on court.

As you might imagine, the tennis world had plenty of thoughts on the matter, and took to Twitter to let us all know:

We will continue to update this developing story.