{"id":412099,"date":"2026-01-17T02:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T02:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/412099\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T02:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T02:50:11","slug":"federer-lights-up-laver-arena-vs-ruud-in-ao-return-tennis-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/412099\/","title":{"rendered":"Federer Lights Up Laver Arena vs. Ruud in AO Return \u2013 Tennis Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Richard Pagliaro | Friday, January 16, 2026
Photo credit: Antoine Couvercelle\/ROLEX<\/p>\n

Roger Federer famously branded the Australian Open the \u201cHappy Slam.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twenty-time Grand Slam champion Federer brought blissful buzz back to Rod Laver Arena earlier today.<\/p>\n

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Federer practiced with world No. 13 Casper Ruud then the pair played a tiebreaker before a packed and enthralled Rod Laver Arena crowd.<\/p>\n

The session came nearly seven years after their one and only ATP Tour meeting when Federer repelled Ruud 6-3, 6-1, 7-6(8) at the 2019 Roland Garros.<\/p>\n

Watch Federer successfully serve-and-volley against Ruud then surprise the three-time major finalist with a clean backhand return winner down the line at about the 3:25-mark of the video below.<\/p>\n

The 44-year-old Federer looked fit and focused and wasted no time between points.<\/p>\n

Federer has been active around Melbourne Park this week.<\/p>\n

The Swiss Maestro will join fellow major champions Andre Agassi, Lleyton Hewitt and Patrick Rafter in the Australian Open\u2019s \u201cBattle of No. 1s\u201d exhibition match tomorrow night (Saturday, January 17th).<\/p>\n

That match will be preceded by the beloved band Crowded House\u00a0performing at the inaugural AO Opening Ceremony on Saturday, January 17th.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a closer look at Federer\u2019s training session courtesy of official Rolex photographer Antoine Couvercelle:<\/p>\n

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All Photos: Antoine Couvercelle\/ROLEX<\/p>\n

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The Swiss Maestro is still making the strings sing nearly nine years after he out-dueled rival Rafa Nadal in a riveting 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 triumph in the 2017 AO Final that saw Federer deliver a pulsating and near pristine fifth set of tennis.<\/p>\n

In the afterglow of that match, Federer received the championship trophy from one of his tennis heroes, and fellow Rolex Ambassador Rocket Rod Laver.<\/p>\n

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Photo credit: Jon Buckle\/ROLEX<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a moment that still resonates with Federer, who wore his Rolex on court versus Ruud, and shared the significance of the butterflies in that stirring AO victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Australian Open has so much going for it,\u201d Federer said today. \u201cMelbourne is such a great sporting city; Melbourne Park is a fantastic tennis venue and Rod Laver Arena is iconic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Rolex Sky-Dweller I received after winning the tournament in 2017 is the watch which holds the most sentimental value to me. It has a butterfly engraving on the back because I referred to having butterflies before the final, so it was a special message from the Rolex family.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Richard Pagliaro | Friday, January 16, 2026Photo credit: Antoine Couvercelle\/ROLEX Roger Federer famously branded the Australian Open…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-412099","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}