February 4, 2025

Open Court

MORE TENNIS THAN YOU'LL EVER NEED

When you’re Roger Federer, you can get Bill Gates to do a cameo

When Roger Federer mentioned after winning the Miami Open that he was still going to be practicing on hard courts for quite awhile, this was one reason.

Federer will headline the fourth edition of his Match for Africa charity exhibition in Seattle on April 29. And in the promo for the event, a special guest star (and doubles partner at the exhibition) is slowly revealed.

Those are some of the bluest blue-chip corporate sponsors so you know the event, with the proceeds going to Federer’s charitable fund and his foundation, is going to be a big money-maker.

The tickets go on sale Thursday; (presale begins Wednesday). Federer and the “mystery guest” above, clearly a ringer, will team up against John Isner and a celebrity player to be named later in a set of doubles. That will be followed by Federer vs. Isner in a best-of-three set singles match.

Seattle doesn’t get much world-class tennis – much less a Federer appearance. So this is big stuff for the area. Key Arena seats 17,072 for basketball, 15,177 for ice hockey. So the actual available seating should lie somewhere in between.

Federer will have two such exhibitions in a three-week period in April. “Match for Africa 3”, which was to have taken place last November, was postponed and will take place in Zurich April 10. His opponent will be Andy Murray in that one, and the event will be televised across Switzerland in French (with Stan Wawrinka’s brother Jonathan, a former player turned coach, on the commentary), Swiss-German and Italian.

About Post Author