What was Roger Federer doing in China? The Basel player, who we finally hope to see next week in the stands of the Swiss Indoors, which were “his” tournament before he fell out with the real owner, Roger Brennwald, has been rather rare since his farewell in September 2022 in London. He is in fact mostly discreet, because he continues to travel a lot in parallel with ATP tournaments, whether for appearances linked to his sponsors, interventions as part of his philanthropic activities, or a mixture of the two.
Everywhere, he is asked to continue doing what he does best: playing tennis. With guests of his partners, with former celebrities, with celebrities, with children. On courts on the ATP circuit or in private clubs, when it is not in gigantic stadiums or unusual places. He began to honor this type of service, which can be part of contracts concluded with brands (which often specify a number of days or half-days per year of availability) or be paid separately, well before the end of his career. In 2012, we saw him, and followed him, as he scored two in one morning in Bogota. Equipped with a wireless headset, he hit balls with children while commenting on the exchanges out loud, in English, for the public gathered in this exclusive setting. He seemed very comfortable, talkative, and had a lot of fun.
At its ideal weight
At the Rolex Masters in Shanghai, Roger Federer, who maintained his healthy weight, appeared in various activities revolving around the largest Asian tournament, sponsored by one of his most intimate partners. He first spoke on October 8 with young Chinese tennis talents from the mountainous region of Yunnan. The activity, organized by the Zurich company On, of which he is a shareholder and which opened a large boutique in Hong Kong this spring in his presence, was widely reported by the local press. THE China Daily portrays Li Jiao and Peng Shiya, two 16-year-old players who hit “7,000 balls per day on average” and fall asleep in the evening under a poster of their idol. Quoting Federer not without a certain lyricism, the English-language daily of official China has him say that “love [du sport] is the seed of dreams, and perseverance and hard work are the sun and rain that make those seeds grow.”
In the following days, Federer visited Qi Zhong Stadium, a venue whose retractable roof opens and closes like the petals of a magnolia tree. He inaugurated it in 2005, when he was at the height of his domination. Here he won the season-ending Masters twice (2006 and 2007) and the ATP tournament twice (2014 and 2017). Here, he has always been adored, more than anywhere else, and has always known how to express his gratitude to an audience sometimes coming from very far away (a group of fans encountered in 2007 had traveled twenty-eight hours by train to reach Shanghai).
In the basement of Qi Zhong Stadium, he also played table tennis with Fan Zhendong and Wang Liqin, double Olympic champion and triple world champion. Obviously very comfortable with the racket in hand, Federer was evenly matched… until the Chinese started to play seriously or had fun adding spin to their ball. Enough to feed social networks with videos before the big event, “Federer Fans Day”, Saturday October 11. An evening organized by Red Bull (which is not a usual partner of Basel), inaugurated in 2023. Federer found the two ping-pong champions there but also the pop singer Eason Chan and the best current Chinese player Zhizhen Zhang (45th global). Here again, the Swiss was equipped with a microphone to entertain the public.
A busy schedule
The next day, the star honored the tournament final with his presence. Roger Federer was seated alongside Carlos Alcaraz, released two days earlier by Tomas Machac and who was to take the plane the same evening with Sinner and Djokovic for Riyadh and a lucrative exhibition, Six Kings Slam, with Medvedev, Rune and Nadal. Alcaraz and Federer share many things, including a partnership with Rolex.
Federer’s advertising contracts continue to earn him an amount that the magazine Forbes estimated at 95 million dollars for the year 2023. If his presence was quite discreet at Roland-Garros and Wimbledon, he was more visible at the US Open, the big tournament before his Laver Cup. Asia, and particularly China, is an important market for him. The Basel native already came to Shanghai at the beginning of the year, notably filming a series of four videos lifestyle for Uniqlo called “24 hours with Roger”, a concept also available in Tokyo, New York, London, Paris.
In Shanghai on Sunday, Roger Federer had time to take an interest in tennis and watch the match. “Alcaraz and Sinner have each won two Grand Slam tournaments this season. The new wave is really coming, and it’s strong. I think the audience will have a lot of fun with these two,” he commented. On the court, Novak Djokovic had fun with the situation. “It’s nice to see you, Roger, even if it’s the first time I think I’ve played in front of you. It put a little pressure on me…”
