Roger Federer Is Designing the New Tennis Era
“Roger’s coming,” was the whisper of the month at the most record-breaking US Open in history. And not just there, but all over New York City, from underground warehouse parties for the fashion elite to designer dinners in artist lofts. They were just rumors at first. Then, for one night only, he appeared in the presidential suite of Arthur Ashe to watch the tournament he’s won five consecutive times between 2004 and 2008. The stadium roared.
Federer is still The Moment, and he isn’t even playing.
But amid a groundswell of imperfect and aspirational tennis aesthetics that have taken over our feeds and fashion and films, the appearance of Federer at the Open signaled the return of excellence. Or maybe this new tennis culture emerging is bringing excellence, and therefore Federer 2.0, with it. It’s possible that the two – the culture and the man – just might be inextricable. Either way, the spotlight on tennis is only getting brighter. Zendaya’s Challengers gave it sex appeal. Netflix’s Break Point made players more accessible. The US Open changed its crowd rules to make stadiums more basketball (read: chaotic). The US Open is the hottest nightclub in New York. Honey Deuce is thriving. Tenniscore is unkillable. Carlos Alcaraz says the game is getting faster (literally), and more dangerous (read: more frequent injuries). We have tennis girlfriends now. Line judges have been replaced with AI that screams “Out!” Sports betting has entered the chat. The headlines say “it’s hot now,” and every industry wants a piece. The heat is on. And that’s show business.
It might be fair to say this is all Federer’s doing: An icon who embodies inimitable ideals of elegant grit inspiring deviations from newcomers experimenting with his mold. Sure, some of what’s new is shallow and messy, but even inklings of the growing subculture inevitably have roots in his world. Federer is credited with being the biggest paradigm shift in men’s tennis, raising the bar into new dimensions and reinventing the game all while dominating three generations of players and becoming one of the greatest athletes of all time. He’s the first of the Big Three, followed by Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. Now, the end of the 2024 Grand Slam season marks the first year since 2002 that not one major was won by any of them. “Serena, me, and Murray retired,” says the 42-year-old champion.
We’re sitting on a bench in SoHo, surrounded by cameras for a documentary he’s making. It’s late summer at the annual intersection of US Open and Fashion Week. We’re volleying: a question about US Open leads to an answer about fashion; a question about fashion leads to meandering thoughts on painting, fashion legends, psychology, sneakers, and the seismic shift in both tennis as a sport and as a culture. “It's all happening, you know?” He says. “Transition periods can be difficult for a lot of the fans, so I hope that they stay with the sport. It would be nice to have a younger audience.”
Federer’s ready for that, too. The younger audience, that is. First, he gave them sunglasses and a sneaker line that dominated the French Open. Now he’s back with something more intimate: A groundbreaking racket collection designed by the maestro himself, in collaboration with the iconic Wilson brand. Typically, pro players customize a pre-existing racket frame. Federer’s collection, however is in its own category. And one racket, the RF 01 Pro, is a piece of tennis history that’s two years in the making. Conceived of by Federer after rehabbing an injury in April 2022, the RF 01 Pro design was left unfinished when he unexpectedly retired just months after getting back on the court. In other words: Federer never got to play with the RF 01 Pro he designed to extend his career. “Just three days after he had a super emotional retirement at Laver Cup in 2022, we were on court with him in Switzerland testing rackets,” says Wilson’s global product director for racquet sports Michael Schaeffer. Federer went all in on the design, pushing back goalposts and deadlines to meet his high standards, stating, “Nothing becomes great without struggle when going through the design process.”
It was worth the wait. Looking at the new RF 01 Pro reminds me of the first time I fell in love with a car — a black 1960 Ferrari California with tan leather interior. The racket frame is ombre black with the same tan leather grip. It’s a balance of tradition and innovation — Federer’s signature blend of excellence, and style.
Where I see a Ferrari, Federer sees a paintbrush: a black frame that fades at the tip. With each ball sent over the net, or another brushstroke added to the canvas, the game takes its shape, and the picture emerges from a painting. “A tennis swing is something really beautiful,” Federer explains, slowly making a forehand with his right hand. “Slow motion, you add some music to it. It can be actually quite emotional. At normal speed, it goes like a golf swing, and you almost remember a kind of a glare. So, a lighter touch at the top of the frame might leave a beautiful glare behind. Not just for you as a player, but mostly for the spectator. It's celebrating the beauty of a tennis shot.”
Of course, the RF 01 Pro is also technically elite. Its design is innovative for offensive on-court tactics. The sexy weapon weighs 320 grams and has a 16-by-19 string pattern. It’s lighter and bigger than the Pro Staff – the Wilson frame long associated with Roger Federer on the court – and was designed to have a bigger sweet spot. It’s slightly lighter, too, so you can cut through the wind faster on your forehand, but still heavy enough (320g compared to the Pro Staff’s 340g) to keep the stability you need if you want to rip a one-handed backhand down the line. There’s an emphasis on precision, giving you added power to your serve and volleys. And, true to Federer’s DNA, it was intended for aggressive, offensive play.
The Wilson brand itself plays no small part. Federer’s first tennis racket ever was Wilson, and from then on, his parents got him new Wilson rackets on Christmas and his birthday. When it came time to make his own, there was almost no question which brand partner he’d choose. Not to mention Federer’s heroes Stefan Edberg and Pete Sampras both played with a Wilson Pro Staff. Notably, the twenty-time Grand Slam champion signed the longest-term racket deal in the history of tennis to develop the RF Collection with Wilson.
But back to tennis’s moment in the sun. Federer has a few theories as to why it’s happening, beyond his own outsized influence. One is that, well, it makes stuff look good: models on tennis courts look good. Sneakers on tennis courts look good. “That's maybe one of the reasons tennis is doing so well,” he says, “which I'm very happy about.”
This is Federer the diplomat, the one who’s been a tennis ambassador in the fashion world for years now. Anna Wintour famously wrote an open letter describing flying across the world, regularly, just to see him play. She even goes so far as to describe herself as his groupie, and has taken him as her guest to shows like Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Versace, and Alexander McQueen.
He was taking notes. “Looking at the heritage and the past of tennis in general, we always had very good outfits,” Federer’s saying now, gesturing to an invisible shoe in the air. “Look at the Stan Smith shoe. And we have Bruno Lacoste. Both great tennis players. We looked the part back in the thirties when we had long pants. We had the seventies with Johnny Mac and Björn Borg. Then it was more loud when Agassi came around with the neon, the jeans, the denim. So we have a lot of fashion history in our sport. And I think sometimes in the past it's a little bit forgotten. We have such a rich aesthetic. We haven't put enough effort into it.”
Naturally, he doesn’t include himself in this statement. Because he is putting effort into it. Anything with RF branding means Federer was heavily involved in the development to make sure everything meets his high standards. “It needs to feel like the moment,” he says. “Obviously, if ‘RF’ is there, I have put a lot of time into it,” he muses. “I like aesthetically pleasing, longterm, timeless, attention to detail; strong and solid designs. The details need to be really beautiful, and I focus a lot on those. Can we look at it in 20 years and it’s still beautiful?”
Federer’s core values are also infused in his design philosophy: love for the game, love for geometry, and the beauty of the shots. He hopes to inspire tennis players to “enjoy the moment – from being able to hear a pin drop in the stadium to the eruption of a crowd. Play with fair play, and represent the game well because, in tennis, we still have very high standards in terms of respect level and sportsmanship.”
It was watching instead of playing this year at the US Open that gave Federer something he probably never expected to find as a source of inspiration: the perspective of the crowd, and how much better it could be. The intensity and focus of the player’s experience doesn’t translate to the spectator experience, “I thought when I walked on court, that was, like, the most important thing. And when I warmed up, I thought that was the most important thing. I thought every point was really important because it matters until the match point. But then you realize as a fan having a chat, and you're like, oh, important point. Let me watch. I think you need to see it from that perspective. There’s still so much potential, and we’re one of the most global sports in the world. The players are really revered and seen as incredible athletes if you compare them to other sports, and you’re out there alone so it’s a really high mindset.”
When it comes to innovating the game, the longtime champion, first-time spectator believes young fans need more ways to consume individual points. “I think so many sports do a great job that we in tennis also need to find the best way possible. But it's not so easy for us to change entirely because we don't know how long the matches are going to go, like in basketball or in football where you have a time clock. Sometimes we finish way too late for kids to stay in the stadium. OK, so at least you can watch it, maybe from the couch, or you watch highlights. How do you consume highlights?”
Just as the sport is changing, being a fan of it is, too. For example, there are more of us. And there are new champions to watch rise. But for lovers of the game who feel a nostalgia for the greats, and the Big Three, losing the privilege to watch our favorite heroes cuts deep. Luckily, Federer isn’t leaving tennis – he’s busy innovating the game in new ways. But he does have great advice for times of uncertainty: “We overcome tough moments all the time in tennis. I played, what, 1526 matches? I lost 300 of those. And those losses are more vivid sometimes. You can break it down to, you play three great forehands and then you hit two bad ones and you completely question your whole game, and you think from being super confident to lost it all in seconds. At the top level, we feel the same way. We don't show it, maybe like a club player would show it, but there is uncertainty all around. So, what’s important is how we're able to move on, you know? And I think that's what you have to become a master at.”
