Federer plea made by ATP boss after Swiss was ‘begged’ in private chat

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The chairman of the ATP has made a plea to Roger Federer as he admitted he “begged” the 20-time Grand Slam champion to stay involved in the sport during a private conversation before he retired. Federer’s 24-year career came to an emotional end at the Laver Cup in September, but the Swiss star said he would “never leave” tennis when he first announced his retirement.

Federer hung up his racket just under two months ago as he returned from a 14-month injury layoff for one last dance at the Laver Cup in London’s O2 Arena, teaming up with Rafael Nadal in the doubles before waving goodbye. The 41-year-old had announced his decision to retire a week earlier in a heartfelt statement, in which he hinted that he wouldn’t disappear from tennis entirely.

“Finally, to the game of tennis: I love you and I will never leave you,” he concluded his emotional retirement announcement. While the 103-time title winner is yet to return to tennis while still in the early days of his retirement, the boss of the men’s tour urged Federer to remain close to the sport as he lauded his legacy.

“I mean I love what he said at the end,” Andrea Gaudenzi told Prime Video, referring to Federer’s statement. The chairman of the ATP then revealed that the pair had a private conversation at Federer’s final tournament where he “begged” him to remain in tennis.

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He continued: “I spoke to him at the Laver Cup and I begged him to stay involved. He loves the ATP Tour. Honestly, he loves tennis and he’s promised that he’s going to stay around.” The former-pro-turned-ATP boss admitted that Federer needed a bit more time to decide what role he wanted to take up in his post-playing career but was confident he would return.

“He just needs a bit of time to think about it, in which shape or form but I’m pretty sure we’re gonna see Roger staying close to tennis.” And Gaudenzi explained why it was so important for Federer to stay involved as he gave an example of how synonymous he had become with tennis.

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“We need people like him, I mean I don’t think there [are] words that can describe what Roger had done for our sport, it’s that kind of thing that makes me proud to have been a tennis player,” Gaudenzi said.

“A lot of the people you meet in the street say ‘hey what have you done’, ‘I was a tennis player’, ‘oh that sport that Roger played?’ So it’s kind of identified, it’s just amazing. We’re going to try all that we can to keep him close to us.”

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