Fed's legacy will go far beyond his greatness on court. I'd argue his global expansion of tennis supersedes his play and both are dwarfed by his charitable work. Fed created the Laver Cup team event to honor (and remunerate) his idol Rod Laver. The Laver Cup draws capacity crowds at high ticket prices {one can argue, too high prices} in cities the ATP claims can't support tournaments. His "Match for Africa" raised millions for charity by filling the SAP Center in San Jose to watch Fed play Bill Gates and Savannah Guthrie -- after the ATP killed the longest-running pro tournament in America ostensibly because it couldn't sell tickets in the same arena.
Here's Andre Agassi, captain of the Team World, in the first photo, doing an imitation of the Wizard of Oz, his image hovering over a capacity crowd of around 18,000 filling San Francisco's Chase Center in 2025. Great competitive, entertaining event.
Thousands of fans crowd, elbow to elbow, not during the tournament but the day before the event began, just to hear Andy Roddick interview Roger in the open space outside Chase Center.
Roger giving out autographs, photos and selfies after his interview with Roddick outside Chase Center on the day before the Laver Cup San Francisco.
A capacity crowd of 20,000 filled Chicago's United Center to watch the Laver Cup in 2018.
Back in 2018 Fed's group organized a "Match for Africa" charity event that filled San Jose's Shark tank aka SAP Center with a capacity crowd of 18,000. While the ATP insisted that the longest-running tennis tournament in America had to be cancelled because it couldn't draw enough attendees, Fed filled the same stadium at high ticket prices to watch Fed and Jack Sock hit with such "tennis greats" as Bill Gates and Savannah Guthrie.
Here are a few of my images of Fed in match play at the Laver Cup Chicago.
Roger with his unforgettable RF logo and his one-time-only red RF97 racket. While the RF is based on Bodoni, a classic serif font characterized by the sharp contrast between thick and thin lines, often used in high-fashion branding, his version was reportedly "not an off-the-shelf commercial typeface. It is a custom, hand-drawn monogram created initially by his wife, Mirka, and her father for a fragrance". It's a good story, so who am I to be a skeptic?
Look at Fed's enthusiasm. He'd just won the final, scheduled match to tie Team Europe with Team World and send the match to an extra decider. You'd swear he'd just won Wimbledon for the first time.
Team world storms the court to celebrate Jack Sock (leaping middle) hitting the winning shot to give Team World in a seemingly insurmountable lead in the Laver Cup Chicago, 2018. From your right to left, we have John Isner, Coach John McEnroe, front, Diego Schwartzman, Nick Kyrgios, and Frances Tiafoe.
