Roger Federer admitted that he benefitted from Carlos Alcaraz’s early exit at the Shanghai Masters as he returned to the event as a special guest. The retired star received the tournament’s “icon athlete” award on Friday and admitted he was happy to get his old locker room back from Alcaraz after the top seed lost in the round of 16.
Federer received gifts from the tournament, reflected on his old matches and answered fan questions during his return. The former world No 1 later took his seat to watch the last quarter-final of the tournament between Andrey Rublev and Ugo Humbert.
Federer also treated fans to a behind-the-scenes tour of the Shanghai Masters in what is the first time the tournament is being staged since 2019. The top players’ locker rooms had already caught attention this week, as it emerged that Alcaraz had been given Federer’s old spot while Holger Rune got the locker room previously used by Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.
And the Swiss star revealed that he got his room back from Alcaraz after the 20-year-old crashed out to Grigor Dimitrov on Wednesday. “So here we’re heading down the tunnel of all the locker rooms. I heard that Alcaraz was staying in my locker room this year but as he’s not around anymore, I got it back,” the two-time former champion explained.
Although it meant Alcaraz was no longer in the tournament, Federer was glad he got his old space back on his return. He added: “So I’m sorry for him but I’m happy to have my own locker room again.” The video revealed that Federer’s name had already been hung on the sign outside the room, replacing Alcaraz’s name. And the retired star had already received some gifts in his old locker room. “This is the locker room. I get a lot of stuff I sign for everybody,” he laughed.
“And I get a nice note from the Tournament Director like, ‘Hey thank you very much for signing everything and I’ll see you later.’ And every day I come and there is a mountain of stuff to be signed. So yeah, now we even have cookies and stuff. That was not the case back then but it changed every year.
It seems Federer has been making the most of having his old locker room back as he returned to the Shanghai Masters for semi-finals day on Saturday and could be seen signing autographs for fans waiting outside. The 103-time title winner could be in the stands for the semi-finals as Andrey Rublev takes on Grigor Dimitrov.
But Rublev may have mixed feelings if Federer watches one of his matches again. The fifth seed was all smiles when he noticed the 42-year-old in the crowd for his victory against Humbert but later admitted it took away the attention. “No he didn’t distract me at all but all the people, they stopped focusing on the match because they only focus on Roger, so they were not watching any more tennis, they were watching only Roger,” he said afterwards.
