Roger Federer thrills tennis world with Shanghai Masters Celebrity doubles return

Roger Federer returned to the tennis court for the first time since his 2022 retirement at the Rolex Shanghai Masters, hosting a Roger Federer & Friends Celebrity Doubles match featuring filmmaker Donnie Yen, actor Wu Lei, and former WTA world No. 15 Zheng Jie.

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First announcing the event back in August, Federer followed the remaining Shanghai men’s quarterfinal matches—which saw Arthur Rinderknech and Daniil Medvedev complete the semifinal line-up—for his first live tennis match in over three years on Friday.

The 20-time Grand Slam champion officially hung up his racquets at the 2022 Laver Cup, but has remained a fixture in and around the tennis world, taking part in an emotional retirement ceremony for rival Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros earlier this spring.

Laver Cup Chairman Tony Godsick, who has worked with Federer since 2005, suggested last month that the former world No. 1 might be working on a larger-scale return to the sport.

“He’s looking for the next thing,” said Godsick, teasing a potential exhibition tour with Nadal and other greats from the last two decades.

“Roger just wanted to make sure that his knee was fine. He didn’t want to be totally broken after his career, so he gave it a little bit of time. He’s not there yet but he’s in the gym a lot. I think Rafa’s interested, I don’t want to speak for Rafa. But it would be great to see these guys out there.

“Plus, there’s a lot of other guys of their generation that I think would be willing to play too. Some of the biggest names are these guys who just retired, so we can probably fill some nice stadiums and venues.”

Federer echoed that sentiment earlier that week in an interview with CNBC.

“I’ve been trying to keep in good shape,” said the Swiss, who won 103 ATP singles titles and spent 310 weeks atop the ATP rankings. “I know that Rafa is also totally open to maybe play some tennis. It sounds terrible, ‘seniors tennis,’ to us, but maybe we can create a tour, like a ‘Fedal Tour’ or something like that. It would be cool.

“I think that’s one of the reasons why I started the Laver Cup, to shine a light on the past greats of the game. Maybe with a seniors tour, we’ve had a little of that in tennis…but there’s a lot of appetite for seeing past champions in tennis, as well. I could maybe look into that with Rafa, for sure.”

Partnering Yen, Federer ultimately defeated Wu and Zheng, 5-7, 10-8, 7-1.