Roger Federer’s Basel absence saved by strong field led by Carlos Alcaraz and Nick Kyrgios | Tennis | Sport

The Swiss Indoors tournament director has explained how he managed to get a strong field of players after dealing with several challenges ahead of the event, including Roger Federer’s retirement. The ATP 500 tournament had originally been touted as the site of his first tour competition since Wimbledon in 2021 but everything changed when Federer decided to retire at the recent Laver Cup.Federer was set to make his comeback to official tour competition at his home tournament in Basel later this month, with the event announcing his participation all the way back in April and selling specific tickets for his opening match. But they were suddenly left without their biggest star when the 41-year-old decided to retire last month, announcing the news in a statement before playing his final match at the Laver Cup.The tournament director has now explained how he managed to rally and get a series of top players to compete in Basel later this month, including the likes of world No 1 Carlos Alcaraz. The Swiss Indoors is being staged for the first time since 2019, and Roger Brennwald opened up on the process of inviting players to the tournament, telling Blick: “It was a very special starting position after the tournament had not taken place for three years.” The Swiss Indoors boss said he usually started planning for the October tournament around 10 months in advance, but hadn’t been able to do so with the 2020 and 2021 editions cancelled due to the pandemic. When it came to inviting players to compete, Brennwald said: “I always start with a framework of top players and young stars.”JUST IN: Kyrgios says Japan injury is down to him being ‘too excited’ to play



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