Roger Federer’s message after his retirement announcement has been clear. The 41-year-old tennis star announced that he would never leave the sport he loves. But what are the options open to the Swiss, who will bid farewell to the Laver Cup in London next week?
A time-consuming job as a coach, accompanying his protégé to tournaments around the world, seems unlikely as he wants to devote more time to his family. The roles of captain of the European Laver Cup or the Swiss Davis Cup team are more suitable.
He co-designed and is the biggest promoter of the continents competition between Europe and the rest of the world in honor of the great Rod Laver, even postponing his final retirement by a week. The forecast is allowed that Federer will replace Björn Björn as captain of the European team sooner rather than later.
The Davis Cup has always been close to Federer’s heart, even if it has never fit into his increasingly shrinking schedule in recent years.
Other options are working as a TV expert, a mentoring role for young players from the Alpine republic or the office of tournament director in Basel, where the 20-time Grand Slam tournament winner was once active as a ball boy.
With ten titles, the Münchensteiner, who was born in the city of Basel, is the record holder, where he won his 103rd and last ATP tournament in October 2019. And twelve years ago, Federer let it be known that he would be interested if tournament founder and director Roger Brennwald wanted to sell.
Federer feels comfortable on every floor. For nine years he represented the tennis professionals in the ATP Players’ Council, for a time also as President. Maybe he will go one step further in the future and become head of the ATP. In this way, he could have a say in the fate of his beloved sport at the forefront.
Which would be in line with the Swiss media scene, which rolled out the red carpet for Federer. “We all knew that at some point his career would be over. But now that it’s final, it still feels like a stab in the heart. Like separating from a long-term partner,” wrote the “Tages-Anzeiger”. who, like when Serena Williams left (at the US Open), would have liked the big stage for a farewell. Wimbledon would have been predestined.
“The term world athlete applies to Federer like very few other athletes in the history of sports,” judged the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung”.
Source: Nachrichten
