Roger Federer is nervous about what his tennis will look like when he steps back onto the court.
The 20-time Grand Slam champion will return to Arthur Ashe Stadium on Tuesday night for the first time since 2019, five years after his last competitive singles appearance. Even Federer, whose effortless style helped redefine tennis at the height of his dominance, admits he does not know what to expect.
“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 Wimbledon quarterfinal loss, 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.”
This comeback is modest by competitive standards. Federer will play one singles set against Andy Roddick and one doubles set alongside John McEnroe against Roddick and Andre Agassi in an exhibition.
He should be more than capable of handling that challenge.
The bigger question is what comes after. Federer is now in his mid-40s, and a return to serious tournament tennis would put him in rare company alongside players such as Venus and Serena Williams, who continued competing at the highest level well into their 40s.
“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.”
At 45, Federer still looks fit and said he enjoys working out in the gym. But he said he goes through long stretches when he is rarely on the court.
His lengthy absence from the U.S. Open has done little to dampen his popularity, based on the number of people around the grounds who were mentioning his name. The appearance of “Roger Federer” on the big board for all to see again, ahead of his afternoon practice on Ashe, where Federer collected the trophy every year from 2004-08, was a welcome sight for his fans.
The trip to New York is a stop for Federer on his way to Newport, Rhode Island, where he will be enshrined in the International Tennis Hall of Fame on Saturday.
Federer never really had the chance to say goodbye to New York as a player because there was no way to know his loss to Grigor Dimitrov in the 2019 quarterfinals would be his last match. He had reached the French Open semifinals and the Wimbledon final earlier that year, falling to Rafael Nadal in Paris and then Novak Djokovic in a fifth-set tiebreaker at the All England Club.
It was easy to imagine him returning to the U.S. Open the next year and making another deep run. But after falling to Djokovic in the semifinals of the Australian Open to begin 2020, he had knee surgery that February, then another procedure in May.
He returned to play in the French Open in 2021 but had to withdraw before his fourth-round match. After the loss to Hurkacz, when he appeared to be struggling and lost 6-0 in the third set, Federer had another knee surgery that August and knew there would be no more comebacks.
“The knee can’t do it anymore. It’s tired,” he recalled thinking. “The mind can’t be patient even more and wait for another couple years and see what happens.”
Federer knows Tuesday night won’t be real tennis, joking that he and Roddick hopefully would be respectful and not try to drop-shot each other. But it will be different from when he returned to Ashe a couple of years ago to watch.
“They gave me an ovation because they saw me on the big screen, but I just feel, like, tomorrow and I guess today, as well, and Monday next week, it really gives me a true opportunity to say thank you and goodbye, which I think is important for some,” Federer said. “It’s a nice thing to do, for sure.”
