Roger Federer celebrates his career with exhibition matches at the start of the Australian Open

The first formal opening ceremony of the Australian Open became the Federer show on the eve of the season-opening major.

The band Crowded House played a hit-packed setlist to a full house at the 15,000-capacity Rod Laver Arena. Laver himself, 87, was sitting on the court. Record champion Novak Djokovic watched from the stands.

Federer, a six-time Australian Open winner and 20-time Grand Slam champion, teamed up with previous champions Andre Agassi and then Ash Barty in an exhibition doubles match against Pat Rafter and Lleyton Hewitt as the show’s headliner.

Everything went according to script, with Federer winning the first point despite framing a forehand and then emphatically finishing off the victory with a diving winner.

Federer returned to Australia for the first time since 2021, making the trip now because he retired from competitive tennis before he could go on a farewell tour of the season. He said: “It is very important to be grateful” to previous generations of stars.

“It really means a lot to me when people like Rocket (Laver) show up,” Federer said.

This year, the Australian Open is a three-week tennis festival. More than 217,000 fans attended exhibitions and qualifying events in the last six days. The individual main draw competition will begin on Sunday. Djokovic will play his first match on Monday. Seven-time Grand Slam singles champion Venus Williams is ready to play, becoming the oldest woman to compete in the Australian Open main draw.

Australian Open organizers turned the 2026 event into a three-week tennis festival, with 217,999 fans turning out over six days to watch exhibitions, qualifying and the 1 Point Slam before the main draw began.