It felt so good to wake up to a Federer-Roddick exhibition match Tuesday in the US Open. It made my day, a big happening to kick off the 2026 US Open this week—a fun, overwhelming, celebrity spectacle notches higher than the other grand slams this year. (It also made my streaming site subscription so worth it.)
Barely out of bed, I was laughing, clapping, still so awe-stricken by those slice backhands and service bombs which reminded me of the ancient past when I not only committed to the sport, but also self-indulged in it to the point of obsession, and when I actually believed rather naively that I could slug it out and win tournaments. Yes, the Roger Federer The Icon Returns to NY gig in the 2026 US Open pumped up this half-awake spectator’s adrenaline even before my first sip of early morning coffee.
It made me feel nostalgic for these two gentlemen of the sport: Roger Federer, the GOAT in my book, arguably the sport’s most gifted who made tennis seem elegant and effortless; Andy Roddick, the A-list student who became the 2003 US Open champion at 21 years old, who made me emotionally invested in the sport —I remember his heart-wrenching tie-break loss to Federer in 2009 Wimbledon, I sat up in bed till the wee hours, in that scary villa, alone, in Bali on a media junket, trying to fully consume what had just happened. At least that traumatic loss of Roddick took my mind off Bali’s midnight ghosts. What I love most about Roddick are his wit and humor, which I enjoy to this day in his X and podcast.
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Example: When Federer was starting to be invincible in the slams and Roddick was asked in a magazine interview feature what he thought was Federer’s weak point, he replied, “His hair.” (This was when Roger’s unstylish ponytail was his visual signature.)
Fast forward to this week. First game of the exhibition, Federer, the first to serve, lands it on the net, Roddick walks away and tells the crowd, thank you, good night. This would be feel-good fun, you knew right away.
But it was quality fun. Their awesome skills set that you’ll see perhaps only once in a lifetime flashes back on your screen. Tennis Channel commentators put it in a nutshell (forwarded to me by fellow tennista Philip Cuunjieng): “Federer has the head, the heart, and the physical talent.”
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The exhibition match became an instant display of the court coverage of the 45-year-old Federer and 44-year-old Roddick—amazing how fit they still are to be able to run and to execute their signature shots. Roddick’s service bombs at 134 mph, Federer alternately missing or reading correctly those trajectories, Roddick showing uncharacteristic aggression and triumph at the net (years after retirement!), Roddick getting frustrated—and saying so loudly—by Federer’s passing or down-the-line shots, Federer’s seemingly effortless shots that skim the lines, that fluid backhand. And no, we haven’t forgotten how Federer taught the sport the economy—and grace—of movement.
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That Tuesday match presented the two champions, who through the years, brought out the best in each other as they created some of the finest moments of the sport. Win or lose in their matches, Federer, the US Open Champion for five straight years, and Roddick, the only American US Open Champion of recent era, have always made each other look good, and that Tuesday, they surely did.
Roddick told the Associated Press about the one-set exhibition match: “It comes down to Roger…Obviously we played a bunch and he beat me a bunch, but we were always able to navigate a friendship through the middle of our careers that’s lasted till now and will hopefully last forever. It’s just about showing up when Roger asks you to.”
It was a packed celebrity-studded Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York, the city that never got to bid Federer a fitting goodbye/thank you when he retired in 2022. His last match, a doubles, paired him with Rafael Nadal in the Laver Cup. He has 20 grand slam singles titles, 103 singles titles, and his dominance of the sport made for one of the most engrossing chapters in sports history—he was the world number 1 in men’s singles for 310 weeks, a record 237 of them won consecutively.
Federer told the Associated Press: “And every player I was able to play against in the finals here also was a US Open champion. It’s been an incredible run. I loved it.”
The one-set exhibition was indeed fun, but the levity didn’t hide the seriousness—if not the nerves—of the two sportsmen as they tried to close out each game. That’s how much they hold the sport in great respect.
American Broadway musical creator Lin-Manuel Miranda (In the Heights, Hamilton), plucked out from the audience for an on-cam interview, said of Federer and the game, “Roger makes it look poetic.”
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Another front-row celebrity, the Anna Wintour of Vogue, said how honored she is to be a friend of Federer. “He goes way beyond tennis,” she said in the on-cam interview.
This tennis-playing fashion icon then spoke at length about how Federer and his generation of tennis greats have become role models who bring the youth to the sport.
Indeed the reign of Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Andy Murray, Roddick was a different era because of many factors we so miss today. It came before social media was allowed to define celebrityhood and even heroism. It was an era when tennis, played out before huge crowds, was a solitary sport—the coach was not in the match, at least not officially. Even in their celebrityhood, these tennis greats submitted themselves to the sport as a profession bound by ethics, discipline, rules of gentlemanly behavior. They focused on the game, not on the viral buzz and the number of social media followers. Being oblivious to virality—that is a luxury not even ATP or WTA enjoys today. Indeed the generation of these tennis greats didn’t have to be vloggers.
But going back to the Tuesday match, I still couldn’t bear seeing either one of them lose. Yeah, it was supposed to be fun.
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This side of the pond, it’s still so hard to book a court—wake up at 5 am to reserve, but no guarantee. The Alex Eala Effect, and we’re proud of it. Tatler is bringing her home in December for an exhibition match. Now I have another reason to wake up early—to queue online. By the way, Alex Eala—the “movement,” as Roddick described in his podcast— was reportedly asked by Anna Wintour, no less, to be in her box for that Tuesday match.
