Roger Federer to headline “Battle of the World No.1s” at Australian Open’s inaugural Opening Ceremony

Roger Federer didn’t get the chance to properly say goodbye to his fans at a tournament he won six times before father time called in 2022. But come January, the 20-time major champion will make a highly-anticipated return to Melbourne for a special new initiative.

“I’ve been thinking it’s really cold here in Switzerland. I need to make a trip again and head back,“ Federer revealed on Instagram before rotating his video to complete the sentence with, “Down Under.”

On Thursday, Australian Open organizers announced that the season’s first major would stage an inaugural Opening Ceremony the night before main-draw action kicks off. At the center of it? An on-court appearance by Federer headlining the “Battle of the World No.1s.”

Andre Agassi, Patrick Rafter and Lleyton Hewitt are slated to join the 2026 International Tennis Hall of Fame inductee inside Rod Laver Arena.

“It feels like a lifetime ago that I coined the phrase the ‘Happy Slam’ for the Australian Open, and it still makes me smile when I think about all the moments I’ve had here,” Federer reflected in a statement.

At the most recent Laver Cup in September, Federer’s agent Tony Godsick disclosed during a Tennis Channel interview that the two had sights down the road on organizing an exhibition tour with Rafael Nadal. At that time, Godsick shared that the Swiss was “in the gym a lot” after giving the right knee injury that ultimately ended his career a much-needed break.

“I’ve been pressuring him a little bit, saying, ‘Come on, people want to see you play again. You can play a couple senior things,’” said the president and CEO of Team8.

A few weeks later, his client stepped back out for the first time since his 2022 Laver Cup sendoff by leading the Roger Federer & Friends Celebrity Doubles match at the Rolex Shanghai Masters. Following up on Godsick’s revelaton, Federer told CNBC’s Squawk Box that “maybe we can create a tour, like a ‘Fedal Tour’ or something like that. It would be cool.”

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Federer’s final Australian Open appearance came in 2020 on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic. The former world No. 1 became the first man to post 100 match wins at two different majors and memorably saved seven points against Tennys Sandgren to reach the 46th Grand Slam semifinal of his career.