Roger Federer Invited to Play at the Estoril Open in April

Roger Federer will play the French Open, and he also plans to compete in one or more tournaments before that. The Swiss champion reportedly plans to commit to Barcelona and Rome Open, but other events are interested as well.

The organisers of the Estoril Open took to Twitter and invited the Swiss star to play there. The tournament will take place from 29 April to 5 May 2019. They wrote: ‘Roger Federer, we heard what you said. It would be an absolute pleasure to welcome you in Cascais, Portugal for the 5th edition of Millennium #EstorilOpen. Just let us know and we will book the hotel!’

He won the 2008 Estoril defeating Nikolay Davydenko in the final by retirement. His last appearance there is dated back to 2010 when he lost to Albert Montanes in a straight-set semifinal.

Before the match, Mats Wilander had hinted that Tsitsipas would head into the court feeling no pressure: “He’s 20 years old, completely unafraid. Federer is a dinosaur in a 20 years olds mind at 37 years old.

The only problem with the Swiss star is that he won the Australian Open last year so he’s the defending champion and is arguably the greatest player of all time. But if you set aside the win here last year and ask what else he did – I mean he lost to [Borna] Coric in Halle, [Alexander] Zverev too, so there are a lot of things a young guy can take from that as they don’t have a head-to-head record to be intimidated by.

The intimidation on the court is not there, it maybe by the aura of the man and the reputation. But does he have a chance tennis-wise? I’m not sure. Federer loves someone that doesn’t overpower him, so he can play around with slices and serve and volleys.

So no, I think Federer is the clear favourite.”