Day after retirement, Roger Federer returns to tennis by donning a new avatar at Laver Cup

It has been less than 24 hours since that emotional moment when Roger Federer played his last and final match in tennis leaving world tennis grieving. Federer retired from tennis on the early hours of Saturday at the O2 Arena in London after he lost his doubles match alongside Rafael Nadal at the 2022 Laver Cup. But Federer is back in tennis, as he promised earlier at the time of his retirement announcement, as he was spotted donning a new avatar at the Laver Cup.

Federer drew curtains on his illustrious 24-year-long career at the end of the doubles match alongside Nadal which the famed pair lost narrowly to the Team World combination of Frances Tiafoe and Jack Sock. Following the match, the 20-time Grand Slam winner was left in tears as he delivered a lengthy and emotional speech thanking the fans, his teammates and his family.

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Not many felt that Federer would be back on the very next day, less than 24 hours after his last match. But he was there, but in a never-before-seen avatar at the O2 Arena where was seen actively coach Matteo Berretini to a win. After going through a tough two hours and 15 minutes long battle against Team World’s Felix Auger-Aliassime, the Italian put Team Europe forward with a 4-2 lead in the contest. During the match, Berrettini was a break down and trailing 4-5 in the second set when Federer walked towards him to hand him a piece of advise.

Federer started off with a joke after the Italian was asking for salt: “So what are you looking for? Socks? Salt? And pepper? Salt, what for the salad or what are you?” However, the former world no.1 then shared some serious advise to the world no.15 saying, “When you go back and return on the deuce side, I would not roll it too much because this court doesn’t give you much bounce. Don’t like smash it but just hit, let it fly a little bit more so it skids a little bit. A little bit flatter like this he has to check it a little bit more, he cannot just go wherever he wants, he has to be more careful. That’s the one thing.”

Federer was seen advising Cameron Norrie as well in his match against Taylor Fritz that followed where he asked him to flatten out his forehand. However, Norrie, who replaced Nadal in the line-up, failed to pull off a comeback.