Roger Federer was on a charm offensive on Saturday after he was seen playing basketball in Shanghai to shoot hoops. The Swiss tennis icon, who was with Croatian tennis player Marin Cilic during the pre-Shanghai Open event, joined the Chinese Basketball Association team Shanghai Sharks during the activity, which delighted the crowd.
Done after a practice session scheduled on an event named “Roger Federer Fan Day,” the 38-year old was seen successfully shooting during a couple of his tries. A total of 17,000 fans saw the Swiss tennis star do basketball shots.
The official Twitter account of Tennis TV uploaded a video of the world No.3 shooting basketballs and posed if there is anything the Swiss icon cannot do. He, of course, had to play along, retweeting that there are a lot of things that are beyond his skills. He also remarked that most of the shots in the video are lucky ones.
The Swiss never made it a secret that he liked other sports too. In fact, he played basketball when he was a young child. He also once said that basketball legend Michael Jordan was an inspiration for him because of his longevity, performance, and will.
Federer seeded no. 2 after Djokovic
Meanwhile, the Shanghai Open has already made draws for the players that will be participating in the tournament and Novak Djokovic and Federer are the top seeds respectively. Because of this, they are also the top favorites to win the entire thing.
It seems that Djokovic is doing whatever he can to catch up to Rafael Nadal’s current Race to London points. As of now, the Spaniard has an advantage of a little less than 2,000 points over Djokovic to claim the world ranking’s year-end no. 1. It can be recalled that the Serbian earlier defeated John Millman to claim the Japan Open title on his debut year.
Is there anything he can't do? 😉@rogerfederer #RolexSHMasters pic.twitter.com/w9V7rzpo5l
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) October 5, 2019
Federer on a collision path vs Cilic and Zverev
On other related news, it is looking like Federer may have a difficult Shanghai Open journey ahead as he has a lot of top players on his side of the draw. The Swiss tennis icon may have to face Cilic during the second round of his campaign. It can be recalled that 20-time Grand Slam winner already defeated the Croatian in Wimbledon and Australian Open finals before.
Perhaps an even greater threat to Federer’s hopes of getting his 21st Grand Slam title is Alexander Zverev. The Swiss icon may have to face off with the German player, who is actually managed by Roger’s company Team8. The world no. 6 memorably won the ATP Tour Finals last year.
Roger Federer’s ranking and performance in 2019
Ranked no.3, Roger played his last match on the 3rd of September when he was defeated by Grigor Dimitrov 3-6 6-4 3-6 6-4 6-2 in the quarter in U.S. Open.
This year the Swiss has a 43-7 win-loss record. Roger clinched 3 titles in 2019 in Dubai, in Miami and in Halle. Federer was the finalist in Indian Wells and in Wimbledon.
Roger Federer |
| Embed from Getty Images |
