Roger Federer confirms final swan song; reveals exact moment 'it was over'

Roger Federer will not disappoint his army of fans travelling to London for the Laver Cup after confirming that he is looking forward to getting on court. There were concerns surrounding his ability to play owing to his ongoing recovery from a knee surgery.

The 20-time men's singles Grand Slam champion announced his retirement from tennis on Sept. 15 after 24 years on the ATP Tour. Federer confirmed the Laver Cup, which gets under way on Friday (Sept. 23) at the O2 Arena, will be his final professional outing.

The 41-year-old's last competitive outing was at the 2021 Wimbledon Championships where he lost in the quarterfinals to Poland's Hubert Hurkacz. The Swiss ace underwent his third knee surgery in 18 months in August last year, and was initially expected to make a comeback in the second-half of the 2022 season.

Federer's decision to retire came as a surprise, and fans have since been scrambling for Laver Cup tickets to get one final glimpse of the Swiss maestro. Fears about Federer's withdrawal due to injury have been put to rest after he confirmed his desire to play doubles alongside Rafael Nadal.

"Maybe I can play doubles with Rafa [Nadal], that would be an absolute dream," Federer said, as quoted on Spanish publication Marca.

Meanwhile, the eight-time Wimbledon champion has revealed the exact moment he knew "it was over." Federer was making a comeback from a previous knee surgery at the 2021 Wimbledon Championships, and made it all the way to the quarterfinals, much to his own surprise.

In the last eight, Federer came up against Hurkacz where he went down in straight sets with the last being a 6-0 humbling. The oldest member of the "Big Three" labelled that final set mauling as "one of the worst hours" of his tennis career, and knew there was no coming back.

"I realised that nothing works anymore. It's over," Federer told NZZ. "The disappointment felt like fireworks in my head. I didn't know how to proceed with this knee. At the press conference, nobody asked how the knee was doing. I thought: Hey, am I such a good actor that nobody noticed?"

Federer's swan song at the O2 Arena will see him surrounded by his long-time rivals Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray. He will also come up against a number of the new generation, who have come up idolising him and his wizardry unlikely to ever be seen on a tennis court again.