Celebrated star: FedererImage: Imago
The Australian Open has just begun. But it already looks like Melbourne will break all records in 2026. Roger Federer has a big part in this.
No more tickets. Not even for journalists. The seats normally reserved for the media went on sale. The photographer seats in the Rod Laver Arena have also been reduced. With the show doubles with Roger Federer, Andre Agassi, Patrick Rafter and Lleyton Hewitt, including the opening ceremony with laser show on the evening before the first Grand Slam tournament of the year begins, the organizers have set the bar high for the following Grand Slams in Paris, Wimbledon and New York – at least in terms of commerce and show. The sporting value was manageable.
The stars wore microphones around their necks, joked with each other, produced the odd tweener, but also lots of mistakes. The 15,000 spectators still cheered. Even if the entertainment on the pitch was modest compared to, say, a Mansour Bahrami show.
But Bahrami was never number one either. It was all the players on the pitch on this warm summer evening. And when the former Australian world number one, Ash Barty, ran onto the court towards the end of the performance and jumped in alongside Federer, the crowd cheered.
Tickets ab 150 Dollar
Tickets start at 150 Australian dollars, and VIP tickets with hospitality cost up to 5,000 dollars. On the other hand, the signing fees also had to be paid. It was said behind closed doors that Federer had his Melbourne engagement paid for with several million. As much as the show was a kind of early Australia Day, the star of the first week – the qualifying week with events such as the one-point slam, is now an integral part of the event, so that the major Down Under essentially stretches over three weeks – was Roger Federer.
The 44-year-old has not been to Australia since his departure in 2020. This time he came with a full entourage, family plus parents, and was celebrated like a messiah. He gave a humorous press conference where he admitted that he had lied a lot as a player. He told the press that he was fine, even if he wasn’t feeling well. The pressure has long since fallen off.
Federer is enjoying the fruits of his extraordinary career, which has made him a billionaire. After initially staying away from the tennis circuit, he is now reappearing more and more often. This means that Federer, the Galactic, like many of his colleagues, becomes a normal ex-professional who cannot get away from the drug of tennis and who is always drawn back to the site of old successes.
Ceremony at the opening ceremony. Copyright: Dubreuil Corinne/ABACA
Why not? He still plays smoothly. During a training session with Casper Ruud – the Rod Laver Arena was also full – he thrilled everyone when he beat the Norwegian, number 13 in the world, 7:2 in a tiebreak.
The businessman Federer is at least as good. He made his Laver Cup a success story. It was no coincidence that Agassi and Rafter were there, the captain and his deputy from Team World. Oh yes, the figurehead of the Laver Cup also did the honors. Rod Laver sat in the stands of the stadium named after him. Tennis Australia – and this is where we come full circle – is also part of the Laver Cup family. People help each other in this high sphere of the tennis cosmos.
The Federer effect
The Australian Open is already in the process of destroying the attendance record. And Federer has a huge part in it. The numbers that Tennis Australia beamed around the globe were as follows: 42,408 spectators on “Day 6” of “Opening Week”. A year ago there were 19,987. The value has more than doubled, mainly thanks to the Federer effect. Cumulatively it looks like this. During the qualifying week, 217,999 people flocked to the facility on the Yarra River. And last year: There were “only” 116,528. Above all: the actual tournament hasn’t even really started yet.
