Roger Federer will make another appearance at the US Open after retirement, but his post-career tennis plans will also take him beyond the Grand Slam stage.

The Swiss great has surfaced only occasionally around the sport in recent years, with his most notable appearance coming at the Australian Open earlier this season. In Melbourne, Federer first played a practice set with Casper Ruud, then joined Pat Rafter and Lleyton Hewitt for an exhibition doubles match.

He is now scheduled to follow a similar path at the Shanghai Masters, where the tournament has confirmed his partner and opponents. Federer will team up with Li Na, the most decorated Chinese player in the history of the game. Her record includes two Grand Slam titles, at the Australian Open in 2011 and Roland Garros in 2014, and a peak ranking of world No 2 on the WTA Tour.

Their opponents will be the brother-sister pairing of Marat Safin and Dinara Safina, two players whose achievements made them stand out in their era. Safin won two major titles of his own, at the US Open in 2000 and the Australian Open in 2004, part of a career total of 15 titles. Those results carried him to world No 1 on the ATP Tour in 2000.

Safin won only twice in 12 meetings with Federer, although he did eliminate him at the Australian Open in 2005. Safina never won a Grand Slam title, but she reached the Australian Open and Roland Garros finals and climbed to world No 1 in 2009. Together, the siblings remain the only brother-sister pair to reach the top spot in tennis.

This will be Federer’s second straight appearance at the Shanghai Masters. He featured in an exhibition doubles match at the 2025 edition alongside Donnie Yen, Wu Lei and former WTA player Zheng Jie.

Federer’s record in Shanghai remains an impressive one. He won the title there in 2014 and 2017, finished his career with a 41-12 record at the event across 15 appearances, and also won the ATP Finals three times when the tournament was staged in China.

Rafael Jodar’s breakout 2026 campaign has continued in Montreal, where he has moved into the Canadian Open quarter-finals with little fuss. The Spaniard has dispatched Corentin Moutet, Lorenzo Musetti and Jiri Lehecka, losing only one set across those three matches.

His reward is a last-eight meeting with Arthur Fils, a matchup that will already be their third of the season. The two have split their previous meetings in 2026, which adds another layer of familiarity to a contest that now carries more weight at Masters level.

Jodar’s win over Lehecka did more than place him among the final eight. It also put him alongside Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal in a rare statistical category. According to OptaAce, he has become only the third teenager, after Alcaraz and Nadal, to reach three straight ATP Masters 1000 quarter-finals since the format was introduced in 1990.

Those runs have come at the Madrid Open, the Italian Open and now the Canadian Open, underlining his ability to produce at the highest level on both clay and hard courts.

The milestone against Lehecka also carried added significance in the record books. Jodar has now claimed the outright most wins by any teenager in his first 50 ATP-level matches in the Open Era, reaching 35 victories in his debut season in Montreal. He had been tied with Andrei Medvedev, Andy Roddick and John McEnroe, but now stands alone.

The 2026 season has already delivered plenty for the Spaniard. He won his maiden ATP title in Marrakech, reached the final in Washington and made the semi-finals in Barcelona. His Masters results have been equally steady, with a place in the round of 32 or better at every Masters event and quarter-final runs in his last three.

His Grand Slam year has also been productive. He qualified for the Australian Open and reached the round of 64, made the quarter-finals at Roland Garros and reached the third round at Wimbledon.

Jodar is showing he belongs at ATP Tour level, and in Montreal he now has a chance to push even further.

Roger Federer drew attention last year when he argued that some major events were slowing their courts in ways that could benefit Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.

At the Laver Cup, the Swiss great said: “I understand the safety net that the tournament directors see in making the surface slower.

“It’s for the weaker player. He has to hit extra amazing shots to beat Sinner, whereas if it’s quick, he can only maybe blast a few and, at the right time, he gets past.

“So that’s what the tournament directors are [thinking], like: ‘I kind of like Sinner-Alcaraz in the finals, you know? It kind of works for the game’.”

Those remarks stirred debate then, especially after a hardcourt stretch that included very quick conditions at the Cincinnati Open. Yet the discussion has returned with the Canadian Open in Montreal producing unusually slow courts this year.

The ATP event has recorded a 35.4 CPI, while last year’s men’s draw in Toronto registered 44.7, underlining how sharply the pace has changed.

Several players have voiced frustration with the conditions in Toronto, among them Arthur Fils, who has reached the quarter finals. After defeating Zachary Svajda in the second round, he said: “I needed my serve because on such a slow court, if I don’t win any free points, things start to get complicated. It’s almost slower than clay here. But overall, I’m very satisfied with my performance.”

Sinner and Alcaraz have not played the event, despite the tournament surely hoping to attract them after they missed it in 2025. Slowing the court may have been an attempt to make the field more appealing, as Federer suggested, but it has not produced that result.

Instead, the event has become a stern test, with several leading names exiting early. Alexander Zverev, Taylor Fritz, Daniil Medvedev, and Flavio Cobolli all fell in the second round.

As the quarter finals begin, Ben Shelton is the only top-10 player still standing. The defending champion will face Joao Fonseca for a place in the last eight, while Rafael Jodar, Fils, and Luciano Darderi are among those already through.