“It was funny, hitting the field — nice lighting, nice everything — how your level starts to rise, you know?” he said in an interview with the Associated Press, after a farewell press conference. “Whereas if you play at home, in a regular tennis room, things are fast, the lights aren’t great, the advertising is all around you, you can never find that kind of rhythm.” So is it time for him to call off his retirement? “No,” he said, laughing. “NO NO NO.” Federer is known for his elegant style of play, his longevity, his 20 Grand Slam titles – and the occasional cry in his most emotional post-match moments, whether after a win or a loss. There was no such sadness on Wednesday, just a few laughs at his own jokes as Federer discussed his retirement from professional tennis at age 41 after a series of knee surgeries. He will close the match days with a doubles match at the Laver Cup on Friday – perhaps alongside long-time rival Rafael Nadal. Federer said he is at peace with the decision to retire, which comes just weeks after Serena Williams played her final match at the US Open, and wants this farewell to be a celebration. “I really don’t want it to be a funeral,” Federer said. “I want it to be really happy and loud and in party mode.”
‘I’m nervous’
Wearing a blue blazer with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows and a white polo shirt, Federer took questions from various media during the press conference ahead of the team competition organized by his management company. “I’m nervous going in because I haven’t played in so long,” he said. “I hope to be somewhat competitive.” Federer, who announced last week via social media that he would retire after the Laver Cup, said it took him some time to get used to the idea of stepping away from competition. But it was something he understood he had to do after experiencing setbacks in July during his recovery from his third right knee surgery in about 1-½ years. “You’re trying to get to the next level in training and I felt like it was getting difficult… Then I guess I was getting more tired too, because you have to put in more effort to be able to settle I thought it was going to change. You’re starting to get very pessimistic. Then I also got a scan back, which was not what I wanted,” Federer explained. “At some point, you sit down and go, ‘Okay, we’re at an intersection here, at a crossroads, and you’ve got to take a turn. Who is she?’ I wasn’t willing to go in the direction of, ‘Let’s risk it all.’ And the hardest part came when he knew he had to stop. “You’re sad,” Federer said, “at the same time you realize, ‘OK, this is the end.’ His latest knee operation came shortly after a quarter-final loss to Hubert Hurkacz at Wimbledon in July 2021, which will go down in the books as the final singles match of a brilliant career that began in the 1990s and included 103 tournament titles. A Davis Cup championship for Switzerland, Olympic medals and hundreds of weeks at No. 1 in the ATP rankings.
‘Bittersweet’
In his online farewell message last week, Federer referred to retirement as a “bittersweet decision”. He was asked Wednesday at the press conference which aspect was the bitterest and which was the sweetest. “The bitterness: You always want to play forever,” he said. “I love being out on the court. I love playing against guys. I love traveling… Everything has been perfect. I love my career from every angle.” And then he added: “The sweet part was that I know everybody has to at some point; everybody has to leave the game. It’s been a great, great journey. For that, I’m really grateful.” He will play doubles for Team Europe against Team World on Day 1 of the event and then give way to 2021 Wimbledon runner-up Matteo Berrettini in singles over the weekend. That plan was carried out by the ATP and the captains of the two teams, John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg, Federer said. “I grew up watching him, rooting for him, trying to learn from him,” Berrettini said. “His charisma, his class – everything he brought to tennis on and off the court will be missed.” Those sentiments were echoed by other Laver Cup players, including 2021 French Open runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas (“My biggest memory of him is seeing him lift trophies at almost every Grand Slam he played when I was a kid”) or US Open semifinalist Francis Tiafoe (“I don’t think we’ll see another guy like Roger — the way he played, the grace with which he did it and who he is as a person”).
One last rant for Fedal
As for Federer’s doubles partner for the last tail? Federer wouldn’t say definitively – he said it was up to Borg – but the not-so-hidden secret is that it is expected to be Nadal, who holds the men’s record 22 major championships. While other Federer contemporaries and stars of the sport are in Group Europe, such as 21-time Slam champion Novak Djokovic and three-time major winner Andy Murray, the Federer-Nadal showdown will go down in history as one of the greatest rivalries in tennis or any other sport. They played each other 40 times in total (Nadal won 26), with 14 Grand Slam matches (Nadal won 10). Nadal came out on top in the classic 2008 Wimbledon final, considered by some to be the greatest match in history. Federer won his last match, in the 2019 semifinals at the All England Club. “It could be, I don’t know, a unique situation if it happened,” Federer said of the doubles pairing. As for his future? The father of two sets of twins — 13-year-old girls. boys who are 8 — wouldn’t say exactly what he has planned, other than a vacation, but said he will stay connected to tennis in some capacity. Recalling how Borg stayed away from the sport for years after his retirement, Federer sought to reassure his own fans by saying: “I’m not going to be a ghost.”
