Roger Federer Rules Men’s Tennis, Even in Retirement

By every metric, this has been the biggest US Open ever. 

The prize pool is up 15% from last year to $75 million, the largest for any tennis event in history; the individual prize for the men’s and women’s winner is up 20% from last year to $3.6 million apiece; the Honey Deuce signature cocktail price is up a buck to $23 and generated nearly $10 million in sales last year; TV ratings are expected to set a new record. ESPN just announced it has re-upped to broadcast the US Open through 2037. And so many firsts on the court! It’s the first time an American man and woman are in the final since 2002; if Jessica Pegula wins, it’ll be the first time we’ve had an American win the women’s title in back-to-back years since Serena Williams three-peated from 2012 to 2014; and no matter who wins on the men’s side, this will be the first year since 2002 that no tennis major is won by Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, or Roger Federer.

That brings me to Federer. Even amid all the excitement over the players who are in this year’s tournament, I saw more memes on my Twitter timeline from when Federer went to the Open on Tuesday night than from any other moment. Frances Tiafoe gushed over having Federer in the building: “The way he looked in the suite was the same way he looked when he was playing. No sweating, tee is ironed and perfect, it’s like, what’s up with this dude, man? Hair perfect … what a guy, what a legend … everyone embraces him wherever he goes, he’s such an icon.”

Indeed, Federer retired two years ago, the same month as Serena Williams, and the star power of both is completely undiminished.

Djokovic and Nadal have won more majors and thus earned more on the court than Federer’s 20 titles and $130.5 million (according to Spotrac data), but it is Federer who, it seems to this fan, remains the face of the men’s sport.

Federer’s Second Career

Next up on his calendar, Federer will head to Berlin in two weeks for the Laver Cup, the indoor competition he cofounded in 2017 with his longtime agent Tony Godsick. This will be Federer’s second Laver Cup since retiring, but his role there is hardly diminished. 

“I always tell sponsors, he’s actually probably more valuable now that he’s not playing,” Godsick told me in an extensive interview this week in our FOS studio in New York, “because he actually has time to spend with their customers, and do interviews, and welcome the players.” That sponsor list is as premium as it gets: Rolex, Mercedes, UBS, Uniqlo, On, and Wilson.

No Nike on that list, you’ll notice. Federer’s 24-year relationship with Nike ended in 2018. I remember covering his move to Uniqlo at the time and being somewhat stunned he ended up with the Japanese fast-fashion retailer.

Godsick told me more about how it all happened: “The contract was coming to an end. What do you do with a 36-year-old soon-to-be-retired athlete? I tried to convince them you can do a lot.” 

Nike didn’t think so. Godsick says he landed on Uniqlo because Federer is truly into fashion. He traveled to Japan to meet Tadashi Yanai of Uniqlo’s parent company, Fast Retailing, and got an offer. Nike “decided they didn’t want to match,” Godsick says.

In 2019, Federer was able to add a deal with On because Uniqlo doesn’t make shoes, so the On deal wasn’t competitive with Uniqlo. (Both On and Federer are Swiss.) Last month, On reported a year-over-year 28% sales bump for its second quarter and cited tennis as a huge part of the growth.

Godsick was an investor in On, and says the founders would always ask him over the years whether there was any way On could ever do something with Federer, and Godsick would say, “No, he’s with Nike; he’ll be with Nike forever.”

Until he wasn’t. And sure, it’s been six years since then, and Nike has a massive portfolio of some of the biggest stars in every sport. Nike isn’t likely bemoaning its loss of Federer in the athlete lineup. But Mike Nakajima, the former tennis director of Nike, is quoted in the 2023 book The Roger Federer Effect railing, “That should never have happened. For us to let somebody like that go, it’s an atrocity. Roger Federer belonged with Nike for the rest of his career.”

That take looks more and more correct as Federer continues to shine in retirement and boost the businesses associated with him. Nike blew it.