Roger Federer did not announce another retirement — that happened in 2022 — or hint at a return to the tour. What New York received this week was something rarer: a chance to complete the farewell that the calendar, injuries and the abrupt end of his career had left unfinished.
On Monday, August 24, Federer returned to Flushing Meadows, practiced in front of the crowd with Lorenzo Musetti and spoke at a US Open press conference. The sight of the Swiss champion, headband on and racket in hand, set the stage for the celebration planned for the following night inside Arthur Ashe Stadium.
On Tuesday, August 25, “Roger Federer: An Icon Returns to New York” brought Federer back to competition for one evening. He beat Andy Roddick 6–3 in the singles set, then partnered John McEnroe to defeat Roddick and Andre Agassi 7–5. The scores were secondary; the central image was Federer playing once more on a court that shaped his career.
Calling the night a farewell makes sense as long as its symbolic nature is clear. Federer’s final US Open match came in the 2019 quarterfinals. He missed the 2020 tournament, played his last Grand Slam at Wimbledon in 2021 and officially ended his career at the 2022 Laver Cup. Flushing Meadows, one of the defining stages of his journey, never received the final ritual afforded to other great champions.
Federer acknowledged that absence when he explained that the reunion gave him an opportunity to say thank you and goodbye. It was not an attempt to rewrite a result or reopen his career. It was an emotional closing chapter in a relationship built over two decades.
From 2004 through 2008, Federer won five consecutive US Open titles. No man or woman has matched that run at the tournament. Arthur Ashe was where his precision, speed and apparent effortlessness met one of the loudest crowds in tennis — and where dominance became collective memory.
The guest list helped tell that story. Agassi faced him in the 2005 final; Roddick did so in 2006. McEnroe represents an earlier New York, every bit as loud and inseparable from the spectacle. The court therefore brought together more than four famous names: it brought together different chapters of the same tournament.
Federer also dismissed any suggestion of a competitive comeback. At 45, he said his body had done its job and ruled out accepting a singles wild card. After New York, he heads to Newport, where he will be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame on Saturday.
The US Open farewell arrived four years after retirement, but perhaps at the right moment for what it meant. New York could not recover the final match it never had. Instead, it gave Federer and the crowd one last entrance into Arthur Ashe without the pressure of the tour — only history, gratitude and the sound of a reunion.
Sources consulted: US Open, ATP Tour and Reuters, via CNN Brasil. Reporting updated August 26, 2026.