Roger Federer will be invited to take part in an exhibition event in Germany in July, one tournament director has revealed.
Lockdown restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic continue to cause havoc with tennis, with both the ATP and WTA Tours still suspended.
One casualty of that was the WTA bett1open, which was due to hold its inaugural competition in June before the whole of the grass court season was abandoned.
However, tournament director Edwin Weindorfer has now unveiled plans for two mini-tournaments featuring six men and six women to take its place as sport is slowly starting to resume in Germany.
With Alexander Zverev, Dominic Thiem, and Nick Kyrgios already signed up, it is already an impressive line-up. Weindorfer has even bigger plans in mind, though.
“Following the example of the Bundesliga, we want to set new standards in tennis and organise a top event in difficult times,” he said.
“We are negotiating with two Grand Slam winners.
“We will definitely ask Roger Federer too. We know that he loves to play on the lawn.
“But like Angie Kerber, he wants to wait and see.”
Julia Goerges, Andrea Petkovic and Elina Svitolina are the other names currently confirmed for the tournaments, which are to be held from July 13 to 15 and July 17 to 19.
