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Roger Federer returns to US Open but firmly shuts the door on Serena Williams-style comeback
Roger Federer will play two exhibition matches during US Open Fan Week on August 25.
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To say Roger Federer is feeling nervous about playing tennis sounds almost surreal. The man won five US Open titles during the peak of his dominance, lifting the trophy in five consecutive years from 2004 to 2008. Seven years after his last appearance at the iconic Arthur Ashe Stadium, the Swiss tennis legend is set for a return to Flushing Meadows — and even he is unsure what his game will look like this time, after years away from the sport that once turned his movement and strokes into poetry in motion.
“I haven’t played a singles set in, I don’t know, (Hubert) Hurkacz at Wimbledon maybe, so it’s been five years,” Federer said Monday, referring to his 2021 quarter-final loss at Wimbledon, the final Grand Slam match of his career. “I don’t know how it’s going to go tomorrow. So there is a lot of uncertainty but a lot of happiness that I can return to Arthur Ashe, a place where I have had so many beautiful moments.”
Federer will play two exhibition matches during US Open Fan Week on August 25. First, he will face 2003 US Open champion Andy Roddick in a one-set singles match. The two had famously met in the 2006 US Open final, when Federer won his third title in New York.
Federer will then team up with John McEnroe in a doubles exhibition against Roddick and Andre Agassi.
But what about a return to competitive tennis beyond that?
Serena Williams has made a comeback. Venus Williams is still competing. Could Federer follow their lead?
The 44-year-old was emphatic in shutting down that possibility.
“No, no, no, no. No, not at all,” Federer said during a news conference. “Thanks for asking. I wasn’t sure if the question was going to get asked, but I’m happy you did so I can clarify in case anybody thought.”
Despite a seven-year gap since his last appearance in New York, Federer drew a huge crowd during his practice session at Arthur Ashe on Monday, an early reminder of the extraordinary pull he still commands in the city.
His return to New York is part of a bigger trip that will take him to Newport, Rhode Island, where he will be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame on Saturday.
Federer never really got the chance to say goodbye to New York as a player. There was no way of knowing at the time that his 2019 quarter-final loss to Grigor Dimitrov would prove to be his final US Open match.
That year, Federer had still been competing at the sharp end of the sport. He reached the French Open semi-finals, losing to Rafael Nadal, before pushing Novak Djokovic to a fifth-set tie-break in the Wimbledon final.
