“People want to see Roger Federer play again”: Team8 CEO Tony Godsick teases Rafael Nadal exhibition tour at Laver Cup

Team8 CEO Tony Godsick fueled speculation that Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal could face off again on the tennis court with an exhibition tour, the Laver Cup chairman teased in his visit to the Tennis Channel Desk on Friday.

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“I’ve been pressuring him a little bit, saying, ‘Come on, people want to see you play again. You can play a couple senior things,’” said Godsick, who has been working with Federer since 2005.

“We’ve been talking with Rafa a little bit about putting together a tour together. So, Roger just wanted to make sure that his knee was fine. He didn’t want to be totally broken after his career, so he gave it a little bit of time. He’s not there yet but he’s in the gym a lot. I think Rafa’s interested, I don’t want to speak for Rafa. But it would be great to see these guys out there.

“Plus, there’s a lot of other guys of their generation that I think would be willing to play too. Some of the biggest names are these guys who just retired, so we can probably fill some nice stadiums and venues.”

A 20-time Grand Slam champion, Federer expressed interest in the idea of an exhibition tour earlier this week in an interview with CBNC.

“I love Rafa! I played four hours of tennis the other day here in San Francisco and in LA for another hour and half,” said Federer. “Before that, I’ve been playing a lot, so I’ve been trying to keep in good shape. I know that Rafa is also totally open to maybe play some tennis. It sounds terrible, seniors tennis, to us, but maybe we can create a tour, like a ‘Fedal Tour’ or something like that. It would be cool. I think that’s one of the reasons why I started the Laver Cup, to shine a light on the past greats of the game. Maybe with a seniors tour, we’ve had a little of that in tennis…but there’s a lot of appetite for seeing past champions in tennis, as well. I could maybe look into that with Rafa, for sure.”

Federer, who partnered with Team8 to conceptualize the Laver Cup event, was on court with Nadal to kick off the inaugural edition back in 2017—inspiring a next generation that included 2025 rookie Jakub Mensik in the process. They took a final bow together at the annual team competition in 2022, when Federer played the final match of his career.

“People think, ‘Oh, [Federer’s] retired, so you’re going to retire now.’ It’s just the opposite,” said Godsick. “Before, he used to have the excuse, ‘If I’m practicing or I’m playing, don’t bother me.’ He doesn’t practice and he doesn’t play anymore. So, he’s got more time to create, to think about things. He’s got this incredible partnership with On. He literally is 27 minutes door to door from his house to the offices. So, the shoes that you see, Roger’s actually designing them with their team.

“He’s looking for the next thing,” he added of Federer, who is still heavily involved with Laver Cup planning. “We’re kind of perusing around, what else can we do. At the same time, he’s very hands on with this event. He will come on Monday, he has a little book he keeps in his bag, and he will come with 25 things we either did really well or could do better, different ideas.”

The eighth edition of Laver Cup kicked off with two tense matches won by Team Europe, with a night session to come featuring Flavio Cobolli taking on Joao Fonseca for Team World, which is looking for its third-ever Laver Cup trophy.