‘Second Service’ Tennis News: Roger Federer bowed out with a tearful goodbye & a protester sets himself on fire at Laver Cup

Looking back on the big tennis news in our exclusive ‘Second Service’… Roger Federer bowed out with a tearful goodbye while a protester disrupted play earlier in the day by setting himself on fire, plus more…

To start, Roger Federer has written the final chapter of his professional tennis career, and it was as full of emotion and adoration as would be expected for the legend.

“We’ll get through this somehow,” Federer said to the crowd with tears in his eyes. “It’s been a wonderful day. I told the guys I’m happy, I’m not sad. It feels great to be here. I enjoyed tying my shoes one more time, and everything was the last time.

Read the full story here.

 

 

In other news, the Laver Cup saw a bizarre happening on Friday after a protester set his arm on fire on day one of the Europe vs World competition.

The protestor was able to break his way onto the court just before the second set of the contest between Stefanos Tsitsipas and Diego Schwartzman, ahead of Roger Federer’s last ever match in the Laver Cup doubles with Rafael Nadal.

Wearing a t-shirt reading “End UK Private Jets”, the man sat down in the service box and set his arm on fire with a lighter. Security acted swiftly to remove the man from the court being held in a corridor off the side of the arena.

Read all about it here. 

 

 

Furthermore, Emma Raducanu, the 2021 US Open champion, defeated Magda Linette of Poland 6-2, 6-2 to win three consecutive matches for the first time since her Slam triumph a year ago.

Read about her milestone achievement here.

 

 

Moving on, Stefanos Tsitsipas highlighted Rafael Nadal’s ridiculous record at the French Open as one of the most impressive things he can take from spending time with the Big Four at the Laver Cup.

“Rafa is incredibly humble,” Tsitsipas said in his post-match press conference, before a pause and adding: “Something might be broken in there, because 26 Roland Garros titles in a row is not humanly normal.

“I think there needs to be like a filter change, because this is incredible, I think about it very often. This takes a lot of not just talent but dedication and not understanding what you have done in order to continue doing that year after year.”

 

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