I’d Love To do Fedal Exo Tour with Nadal – Tennis Now
By Richard Pagliaro | Friday, September 19, 2025
Photo credit: Rafa Nadal Academy Instagram
They faced off 40 times in phenomenal matches staged on every surface all over the world.
Now, we can look forward to reigniting the Roger and Rafa rivalry revelry in a potential exhibition tour.
Speaking to CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin, Roger Federer was asked about the prospect of reviving the senior tour.
Twenty-time Grand Slam champion Federer delivered an intriguing response, specifically saying “maybe we can create a Fedal Tour.”
The 44-year-old Federer, who looks extremely fit, says he’s been playing tennis fairly frequently and would love to reunite with old rival Rafa.
“Why not? I love Rafa,” Federer told CNBC. “I played four hours of tennis the other day in LA—here in San Francisco, sorry—and then in LA also another hour and a half. So before that I’ve been playing a lot.
“I’ve been trying to keep in good shape. And I know that Rafa is totally open to maybe playing some tennis. It sounds terrible, seniors tennis, to us but maybe we can create a tour like a Fedal Tour or something like that. I mean it would be cool.”
The King of Clay won 24 of the 40 matches he played against Federer, who captured seven of their final eight matches, including a gripping five-set triumph in the 2017 Australian Open final. Federer said part of the inspiration for creating Laver Cup was to honor past champion.
“I think that’s also one of the reasons I did start the Laver Cup—to shine a light on the past greats of the game,” Federer said. “And maybe a seniors tour, we’ve had a little bit of it in the past, I think it was called The Champions Tour at the time it did exist. I think there’s a lot of appetite for seeing past champions in tennis as well. I could maybe look into that as well with Rafa for sure.”
The friends and former rivals recently reunited on the golf course near Nadal’s Mallorca home. Nadal shared these images of their golfing outing captioning his Instagram post “anyone ready to take on the two of us?? #Fedal.”
Swiss Maestro Federer, who is in San Francisco for this weekend’s Laver Cup, said the game is in great hands with world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz and No. 2 Jannik Sinner, who have combined to collect the last eight straight Grand Slam crowns, leading the charge.
Federer said the epic French Open final that saw Alcaraz fight off three championship points out-dueling Sinner will go down as a flashpoint in tennis history, signaling the changing of the guard from the Big Three and Serena Eras to the New Two Era.
“I think the French Open, for me, was that match that the game needed,” Federer said. “To really sort of move on from the post Roger, Rafa, Serena time as well.
“To truly embrace this rivalry and this incredible shotmaking that Carlos and Jannik have right now. And Novak’s right there as well I think he played four semis in all four majors, which is incredible.”
