LONDON | As hoped, even dreamed, Roger Federer will play the last match of his career on Friday with Rafael Nadal, not as an opponent but as a doubles teammate on the first day of the Laver Cup in London.
• Read also: Federer dreams of last balls with Nadal by his side
“Participating in this historic moment will be something incredible and unforgettable,” Nadal confessed.
Because for the 41-year-old Swiss, winner of 20 Grand Slam titles, this will be the last match of one of the most prestigious careers in all sports.
The two great rivals of the last fifteen years will be side by side to represent the European team against the American pair composed of Jack Sock and Frances Tiafoe who will represent the World team.
“I’m super excited and I hope we have a good time and win the game, we’ll see. I hope that the public will support us enormously”, slipped the Majorcan, who let show the emotion which already inhabits him before the farewell to his rival.
“It will be a different kind of pressure, after all the great things we shared on and off the pitch,” he admitted.
Federer and Nadal wrote in 40 clashes (24 victory to 16 for the Spaniard), some of them legendary, the most exciting soap opera in the history of tennis.
“He is one of the players, if not the most important player of my career and I am very grateful to be able to play with him”, insisted Nadal who is, at 36, holder of the record 22 Grand Slam titles after his victories this year at the Australian Open and Roland-Garros.
“A Last Double”
But Federer, whose right knee injury has become insurmountable, announced last week that he would end his career at the end of the Laver Cup, an exhibition which he initiated and which opposes a team Europe, under the captaincy of Björn Borg, to a World team, under the captaincy of John McEnroe.
“I’m preparing for a last double,” he announced on Wednesday, while the name of his partner was not yet formalized.
Sock and Tiafoe, who will have the formidable honor of closing the career of the master, measure their luck but remain relaxed and focused.
“I can’t wait to play against these little up and coming kids,” joked the recent US Open semi-finalist.
“It promises to be a more than cult evening and I am proud to be there. We will take advantage of the moment but we will not hold back our blows, sorry Roger, ”added his teammate.
“Everyone would like to play this game. There is not much more exciting than that, than to be part of the story, “even admitted their captain, John McEnroe, assuring that he had to draw a coin toss the partner of Sock, doubles specialist.
Federer will hope to end on a less sad note than his last match, a defeat in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon 2021, where Pole Hubert Hurkacz inflicted a terrible 6-0 on him in the third and final set of the match.
“I’m obviously nervous not having played for so long, I hope to be competitive,” he admitted on Wednesday.
Expected but dreaded, the announcement of the Master’s retirement marks the beginning of the end of a blessed era in tennis and sport in general.
Because since his first Grand Slam title, at Wimbledon in 2003, Federer has marked tennis with his talent and elegance, but he has also brought in his wake the phenomena Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Between them, they have won 63 of the last 77 Majors.
The oldest, Federer is the first to bow out. Nadal’s career hangs by a thread: that of the more or less bearable pain that emanates from his left foot. Djokovic, he, at 35, does not seem on the way to the exit. But his refusal of the anti-covid vaccine has set him back in the race for Grand Slam titles: he was prevented this year from participating in the Australian Open, where he holds the record of nine titles, and at the US Open where he won three times. He won his 21st Major at Wimbledon but is unsure if he can return to Melbourne in January.