Roger Federer and Andre Agassi were the biggest stars of the 2005 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, entering the draw as the 1st and 4th seeds. On February 22, the organizers invited Federer and Agassi to exchange some balls on a slightly different tennis court located on the helipad of the super-luxury Burj Al Arab hotel, more than 200 meters above sea level!
Roger and Andre enjoyed a friendly game on a grass court for 20 minutes, shooting some balls from the edge of this fantastic landscape. Seven years later, Roger had the chance to do the same thing against Novak Djokovic. After winning the Doha title in the season-opening tournament and reaching the Australian Open semifinal, world no.
1 Federer conquered Rotterdam and traveled to Dubai immediately. The Swiss couldn’t easily switch from the indoor conditions, struggling to find his rhythm in the opening matches against Ivo Minar and Juan Carlos Ferrero.
The Swiss saved two match points against the Spaniard in a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 victory. After two close wins, Federer defeated Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 7-5 in an hour and 13 minutes to gain momentum ahead of the highly anticipated Andre Agassi clash.
McEnroe speaks about Federer
Tennis legend John McEnroe recently said he would love to see Roger Federer get back to the court soon. He also heaped praise on the Swiss’ style of play, calling him the “most beautiful player” he has ever seen.
“It goes without saying that anytime we are at an event where Roger is not playing we miss him,” McEnroe said. “He is the classiest player and the most beautiful player I have seen on a court. As a fan I would love to see Roger around.
As far as the future, he’s 40 years old,” McEnroe said. “He’s had numerous surgeries on his knee, there’s a lot of wear and tear, it would be unbelievable if he could come back and get close to the level that he was at.
I thought the same thing five years ago when I was coaching [Milos] Raonic and Roger walked off after the Wimbledon semi-finals [in 2016] and was limping and didn’t play for six months. Then he won the Australian Open.
He’s pulled off the improbable before but this would be the most amazing of all if he was to win another Wimbledon,” McEnroe said. “Whatever makes him happy is what he deserves. If he wants to play we will be happy he is playing, but I don’t want to see Roger at 80 per cent. We have seen that with [Andy] Murray and it’s not easy. You want to see the top guys play at their best.”
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