Roger Federer's final match will be in doubles, maybe alongside Rafael Nadal

London: Roger Federer’s final match of a storied career will be in the doubles at the Laver Cup on Friday. And if things go as per plan, it will be alongside Rafael Nadal, his longtime rival, for Team Europe in the Laver Cup.

The Swiss had announced his retirement last week and flew to London this week for his final hurrah. Laver Cup, a team competition founded by his management company, is the setting for the 41-year-old’s last match.

“It was funny, hitting on the court — nice lighting, nice everything — how your level starts going up, you know?" he told The Associated Press in an interview. “Whereas if you play at home, in like just a normal tennis hall, things are fast, the lights aren’t great, advertising is all around you, you can never find this kind of rhythm.”

Federer will play doubles for Team Europe against Team World on Day 1 of the Laver Cup tournament, and then give way to 2021 Wimbledon runner-up Matteo Berrettini for singles over the weekend.

The Swiss would not say with certainty who he will team up with — he said that’s up to captain Bjorn Borg — but the not-so-hidden secret is that it is expected to be Nadal, who holds the men’s record of 22 major championships.

Despite a lengthy matchup history between Novak Djokovic and Nadal, Federer vs Nadal matchup will go down in history as among the greatest rivalries in tennis or any other sport.

They played each other 40 times (Nadal won 26), with 14 Grand Slam matchups (Nadal won 10). Nadal came out on top in their classic 2008 Wimbledon final, considered as the greatest match in history; Federer won their last showdown, in the 2019 semifinals at the All England Club.

“It could be quite, I don’t know, a unique situation, if it were to happen,” Federer said about the doubles pairing.

Federer said he wants his farewell to be a celebration. “I really don’t want it to be a funeral. I want it to be really happy and powerful and party mode.”

Speaking of the impending match, he said, “I’m nervous going in, because I haven’t played in so long,” he said. “I hope I can be somewhat competitive.”

Federer’s last singles match, in the end, will be a quarter-final loss to Hubert Hurkacz at Wimbledon last year. In it, he was bageled in the fourth set in cruel end to a career that began in the 1990s and included 103 tournament titles, a Davis Cup championship for Switzerland, Olympic medals and hundreds of weeks at No 1 in the ATP rankings.

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