Roger Federer farewell to tennis at Laver Cup: Roger Federer will be playing his final ATP Tour match on Friday in Laver Cup 2022. And for the umpteenth time in his illustrious career spanning over two decades, he will be teaming up with his long-time tennis rival and friend Rafael Nadal. Owner of 20 Grand Slam titles Federer and owner of a men’s-record 22 major championships Nadal will pair up for Team Europe against the Team World duo of Frances Tiafoe and Jack Sock.

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This game comes shortly after Federer announced his retirement last week at the age of 41. In his online farewell message, he referred to retirement as a “bittersweet decision.” “The bitterness: You always want to play forever. I love being out on court. I love playing against the guys. I love travelling. It was all perfect. I love my career from every angle,” he explained. “The sweet part was that I know everybody has to do it at one point; everybody has to leave the game. It’s been a great, great journey. For that, I’m really grateful,” Federer added.

The Swiss great recently said he is now at peace with the decision to walk away and he wants this farewell to be a celebration. “I really don’t want it to be a funeral,” Federer said, adding, “I want it to be really happy and powerful and party mode.”

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Retirement was something Federer understood he needed after running into setbacks in July during his rehabilitation from his third surgery on his right knee in about 18 months. “You try to go to the next level in training, and I could feel it was getting difficult…then, I guess, I was also getting more tired, because you have to put more effort into it to be able to sort of believe that it was going to turn around. You start getting too pessimistic. Then I also got a scan back, which wasn’t what I wanted it to be,” Federer explained.

The match will be live-streamed and live broadcast in India on SonyLiv and Sony Sports Network, respectively at 11 pm IST.