Roger Federer knows how to put on a show even when he’s not in the line-up. The Laver Cup returns for its seventh edition in Berlin on Friday. There’s no Federer, Rafa Nadal or Novak Djokovic on the dance floor. It’s tennis devoid of the original earth, wind and fire but as Taylor Fritz said, the team dynamic brings the tournament alive. Stardust will be provided by the Next Gen of Carlos Alcaraz and company.

It’s just over two years since Federer announced his retirement from tennis at the age of 41. It felt seismic even though it was predictable given the wear and tear on the tread of the Fed Express. There’s an elite who live forever in images and minds, and the 20-time Grand Slam champion is only warming up in that respect. Federer was the ageless wonder, a dashing display of tennis prowess on and off the court until that last set bagel by Hubert Hurkacz in the 2022 Wimbledon quarter-finals. Momentarily, the grace was replaced by a stumble in the last chance saloon. His transition to part-designer, part tennis tourist and general entrepreneur of eternal youth has been pretty seamless though.

Not many athletes can grace a sport. When the Swiss retired there were mellifluous tributes, obituaries and a wave of adulation. Andy Murray, who finally quit at the Paris Olympics after having a long goodbye trailer at Wimbledon, telegraphed his exit from miles out. “I was expecting to find retirement hard and be missing tennis a lot and wanting to get back on the tennis court on tour. So far it has been the complete opposite to what I was thinking,” said the Scot earlier this month.

The rules of retirement are a bit different for Federer. Murray can enjoy relative anonymity and knock his golf handicap down. Federer is still tennis royalty and brings as much expectation and eyeballs without the racket. In an interview with British GQ, the 43-year-old insisted he was at peace with leaving the game because the physical parts needed to operate at the highest level were simply not there. A few months later, the eight-time Wimbledon champion was more emotional. “I’m missing tennis, of course I am. Not on a centre court, but I follow it a lot, I miss it, that’s why I sometimes come back to the games, see my friends and my extended tennis family,” the Swiss legend said on Instagram Live.

Federer is someone who can’t ever truly leave the sport. Or the sport won’t leave him. His presence at any event, however corporate or convivial, is pulled off with the same panache. “Untouchable Federer floating in a different zone,” read The Guardian headline after he defeated Andre Agassi in the 2005 U.S. Open final. He is now touchable but floating in a different zone. His Flushing Meadows appearance this month was like the return of the gentleman of the realm.

There’s a certainty in his presence that can even override the negative headlines of the no-shows in the event he co-founded. Two years ago, when Federer partnered Nadal in his last official match, ticket prices were going through the O2 roof. The salivation over his every move is there in technicolor. Or black and white.

Tennis doesn’t revolve around the Big Three anymore but Federer bestrides the circuit without interfering with it. “I was watching Roland Garros last week and I was like: ‘Wow, they’re so good – I used to do that too!’ I feel so distant to my career. I start to forget the things I’ve done, the records. It’s more of a beautiful past on the road,” he mused in an interview with the BBC in June.

As The Laver Cup heads to San Francisco in 2025, Federer’s role in the tournament is neither player not captain, although 2024 will be Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe’s last hurrah as team captains. Another generation will pass on the torch to Andre Agassi and Yannick Noah.

The transition to retirement has looked smooth from the outside even if there were rocks and stones and a lot of tears as detailed in Twelve Final Days. “I don’t feel like an alien, which is a good thing because you can feel like that very quickly,” Federer said on Wednesday. He’s still very much the resident that looks over the garden fence to see where the plot is going.