Former World No.1 Roger Federer loved playing at the US Open. Out of Federer’s 20 Slams on the tour, five came at the New York Major. Interestingly, all of these five titles came back-to-back from 2004 to 2008.
Meanwhile, Federer will play an exhibition match on Tuesday in New York, before traveling to Newport, Rhode Island for his induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame next weekend.
“I guess it’s just the streak of the five in a row that I was able to string that together is kind of surreal because I always knew how hard it is to win here, last major of the season,” Federer said. “Everybody is going through it. Everybody can play on hard courts and with humidity, the wind, I guess all of the changes over the years here it’s just been a tough one. So I think looking back, that’s incredible.”
From Pete Sampras to Andre Agassi and from Rafael Nadal to Novak Djokovic, Federer played some of the best players in the history of the game at the US Open. He picked the final match against Agassi in 2005 as his favourite at the Flushing Meadows. Federer defeated Andre Agassi with a score of 6–3, 2–6, 7–6 (7–1), 6–1 to win his second consecutive US Open title in 2005.
“My favourite one probably is the match I had with Agassi here. I don’t know, just felt like it was going to be a special occasion for him. I was defending champion and that just kind of made it super cool,” Federer said of the 2005 final. “The year before we played five sets, crazy winds over two days against each other already. I loved the rivalry I had with Andre at the time, so to play him here in New York was extra special.”
Federer called time on his career in the Laver Cup in 2022 but didn’t get to play against the top players of the current generation – Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.
“Maybe Carlos, I think he’s exciting. I never got a chance to play against him or Sinner the same. We only practised together a little bit as they were coming up,” Federer said. “So I missed that generation, unfortunately, a little bit, there’s a bunch of those guys I just missed just because of my knee issues. Obviously Novak would be cool too. I mean, he’s still going strong and he’s still hanging there, which is cool.”
The Swiss Maestro will play the exhibition match alongside Andy Roddick, Andre Agassi and John McEnroe, all fellow members of the ATP No. 1 Club.
