{"id":349858,"date":"2025-12-16T23:07:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T23:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/349858\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T23:07:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T23:07:12","slug":"roger-federer-returns-to-australian-open-to-play-exhibition-during-opening-ceremony-atp-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/349858\/","title":{"rendered":"Roger Federer returns to Australian Open, to play exhibition during Opening Ceremony | ATP Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        Australian Open<br \/>\n    Federer returns to Australian Open, to play exhibition during Opening Ceremony<\/p>\n<p>Six-time champion to be joined by Agassi, Rafter and Hewitt<\/p>\n<p>December 16, 2025<\/p>\n<p>            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/federer-2025-exho.jpg\" alt=\"Roger Federer will headline the Opening Ceremony of the 2026 Australian Open.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Lintao Zhang\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>        Roger Federer will headline the Opening Ceremony of the 2026 Australian Open.<br \/>\n        By ATP Staff<\/p>\n<p>Roger Federer will return to the Australian Open in January, taking the court in an exhibition match featuring three other ATP No. 1 Club members: Andre Agassi, Patrick Rafter and Lleyton Hewitt.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe season\u2019s first major will launch a new tradition of having an Opening Ceremony the night before main-draw action begins. The Opening Ceremony will take place on Saturday, January 17 at Rod Laver Arena.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt feels like a lifetime ago that I coined the phrase the \u2018Happy Slam\u2019 for the Australian Open, and it still makes me smile when I think about all the moments I\u2019ve had here,\u201d said Federer, a six-time Australian Open champion, in a press release.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cI\u2019ve experienced so many emotions on Rod Laver Arena\u2026 The joy of lifting \u2018Norman\u2019 [the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup] six times, the honour of playing in front of Rod Laver himself, the challenge of competing against my biggest rivals, and always the overwhelming love and support of the Australian fans.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cComing back to win the AO in 2017 is one of my most treasured Grand Slam memories and backing it up to win in 2018 was another dream come true in Melbourne. I can\u2019t wait to come down under again to the AO and create more fantastic moments with all the Aussie fans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tournament director Craig Tiley added: &#8220;I\u2019m thrilled we\u2019re introducing this very special AO Opening Ceremony. While the AO has a reputation for innovation and is renowned for pushing the boundaries, we are also the custodians of a proud 120-year history filled with some of the sport\u2019s greatest champions.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cThis inaugural Opening Ceremony will mark the start of a new tennis season in spectacular fashion. I can\u2019t wait to see Roger back on Rod Laver Arena, along with other greats of the game, Andre, Pat and Lleyton. And I know fans across Australia will be just as excited to share this moment with him.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\nThe 2026 Australian Open runs from 18 January-1 February. Italian Jannik Sinner is the two-time defending champion while Carlos Alcaraz, World No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings, will be seeking his maiden Melbourne title in pursuit of completing the Career Grand Slam.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian Open Federer returns to Australian Open, to play exhibition during Opening Ceremony Six-time champion to be joined&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-349858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}