Tennis icon Roger Federer has shared a theory about tournaments directors giving Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner an advantage with the speed of the courts used at many events.

Alcaraz and Sinner have faced each other in the finals at the last five tournaments they have played, which were across all three surfaces at: the US Open, Cincinnati, Wimbledon, the French Open and Rome.

Federer, who called time on his glorious 24-year career in 2022, has confirmed he is involved in choosing the court surface at the Laver Cup — the team competition he founded.

The event is always staged on indoor hard courts, but the venue alternates between cities in Europe and the rest of the world each year.

Alcaraz competed at the 2025 edition of the Laver Cup in San Francisco last week as Team Europe were beaten 15-9 by Team World. Many observers felt the court used was very slow for an indoor hard court.

Speaking on the Served with Andy Roddick podcast during the Laver Cup, Federer suggested tournament organisers choose slower courts to benefit Sinner and Alcaraz.

“I just had this conversation this morning with Reilly Opelka. I told him, ‘it’s not okay. I fault myself [for the Laver Cup court speed],” said the 20-time Grand Slam champion. “Because I was part of the decision-making of the court surface speed here, but it can’t be that he’s kick serving on the AD-side indoors against Casper Ruud.

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“Casper Ruud actually can go back, even has that option indoors to go return Reilly’s serve, which is arguably one of the best serves in the game right now, and he returns it from hip height and just hits a cross-court passing shot winner on break point. I feel like it should be a little bit more difficult to be able to do that.

“Back in the day, only 12 tournaments counted. So everybody would play on their favourite surface and then they wouldn’t sometimes meet, and those were the best matches, when you have the attacker against the retriever.

“And now everyone plays similar. It’s because the tournament directors have allowed, with the ball speed and the court speed, that every week is basically the same.

“Obviously, I understand the safety net that the tournament directors see in making the surface slower. It’s for the weaker player — he has to hit extra amazing shots to beat Sinner, whereas if it’s quick, he can only maybe blast a few and, at the right time… and he gets past.

“So that’s what the tournament directors are [thinking], like: ‘I kind of like Sinner-Alcaraz in the finals, you know? It kind of works for the game’.”

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