The Swiss legend, who announced his retirement in 2022 and played his last official match at Wimbledon the previous year, smiled and waved as he was shown on the videoboards in the arena.
Federer’s visit to the venue was his first since he stopped competing. He holds the record for the most consecutive US Open titles, having won five in a row from 2004 to 2008.
Prior to his appearance on court, Federer promoted a book of photos of himself on the ‘Today’ show. During the show, he also expressed his concerns regarding Jannik Sinner‘s doping case, questioning whether the current world No. 1 should have been permitted to continue playing.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), which is an independent body established in 2021 by the governing bodies of the sport, had cleared Sinner.
The ITIA is convinced that the banned performance-enhancer accidentally entered the player’s body after a massage from his physiotherapist, and it therefore chose to not suspended Sinner.
“It’s not something we want to see in our sport, these types of news, regardless if he did something or not. Or any player did. It’s just noise that we don’t want. I understand the frustration of: Has he been treated the same as others? And I think this is where it comes down to. We all trust pretty much at the end, he didn’t do anything,” Federer said, as quoted by AP.
“But the inconsistency, potentially, that he didn’t have to sit out while they were not 100 percent sure what was going on — I think that’s the question here that needs to be answered.”
Sinner is scheduled to face 2021 US Open champion Daniil Medvedev in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.
