As Roger Federer held court on contemporary tennis at the Australian Open, the 20-time major winner was as diplomatic as ever, saying he wouldn’t be the one to remind Carlos Alcaraz about how hard it is to complete a career Grand Slam.
Federer won five US Open titles, five at Wimbledon and three in Australia before he finally completed his career Grand Slam in 2009 with a victory at Roland Garros, where Rafael Nadal was dominant on the clay.
Top-ranked Alcaraz won the back-to-back Wimbledon titles in 2023 and 2024, two French titles in a row in 2024 and last year, and the US Open in 2022 and last year. He has never gone past the quarterfinals in Australia, where rival Jannik Sinner has won the past two titles.
“He knows about it. It’s like Rory [McIlroy] going for the Masters, you know, those things are tough,” Federer said Thursday, shortly after the draw was held for the first major of the year. “His momentum shifts toward the first round, and then it’s point for point mentality. That’s what it is.
“But it’s true, at his young age, to be able to complete the career Grand Slam already now, I mean, would be crazy. … I hope he does because for the game, that would be an unbelievable special moment.”
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Alcaraz hasn’t been shy about telling the world that he wants to win the Australian Open to complete a career Grand Slam.
That would make him the ninth man in tennis history with at least one singles championship from each of the sport’s four most prestigious tournaments — and at 22 years and just under 9 months old at the event’s conclusion, the youngest.
“It’s going to be my first tournament of the season, and it’s really the main goal for me,” Alcaraz told The Associated Press. “I’m going to do the preseason just focused for the Australian Open — to be in really good shape for the Australian Open, physically, mentally, tennis-wise. Everything.”
When play begins on the hard courts of Melbourne Park on Sunday, Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek both will be chasing the one major trophy missing from their collections.
But for Alcaraz, there are 127 other men in the draw with other ideas, Federer noted, including his own longtime rival and 10-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic. Federer also called the current rivalry between and Alcaraz and Sinner, who have split the past eight majors, a “great one.”
“They play incredible tennis,” Federer said. “That French Open final was unreal. It just ended up in this most crazy fashion, maybe one of the greatest games we’ve ever had in our sport.”
Sinner’s missing piece for a career Grand Slam remains Roland-Garros, where he lost last year’s final to Alcaraz after holding a trio of championship points.
“It’s definitely a motivation,” Sinner told the AP. “We will push a lot to be ready to perform my best at every tournament and be ready for the most important matches. That’s what I want.”
As serious as Alcaraz is about getting the job done in Melbourne, he also can joke about it.
“I would trade Australia for Roland-Garros with Jannik,” Alcaraz said with a hearty laugh. “I would trade that, to be honest.”
Federer was visiting the Australian Open for the first time since his semifinal loss in 2020 and later retirement in 2022, and he will play a leading role in the tournament’s first gala opening ceremony on Saturday night.
He wouldn’t enter discussion on speculation that Serena Williams might be considering a comeback — a rumor the 23-time major winner has denied. Williams last month issued a social media post saying she’s “NOT coming back” after a spokesman for the International Tennis Integrity Agency said the 23-time Grand Slam champion had registered with the sport’s drug-testing body. That is the first step that would be required by a player seeking to come out of retirement.
“I mean, I heard that she entered the doping program, and then I heard that she said she’s not coming back,” Federer said. “I mean, obviously for the game it would be incredible. … Serena is such a legend to come back.
“If she decides not to do it, or just maybe give herself an option — it’s great to have options in life, in my opinion. Let’s see what she does and wait for an announcement, or not.”
