Roger Federer hopes South Africa returns to Tour calendar

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• Roger Federer

World No. 3 Roger Federer hopes South Africa will get back on the Tour calendar and once again have an ATP event. The country once had a strong ATP event as it staged the South African Open between 1891 and 1995. In the late 1970s and early 1980s there was talk of the South African Open replacing the Australian Open as one of the four Grand Slams.

During that period, the Australian Open was struggling for popularity as some American players were deliberately skipping the event. Eventually that didn't happen as the Australian Open relocated from the lawns of Kooyong to Melbourne Park.

Federer is in Cape Town, where he will play a charity match against Rafael Nadal on Friday. "I think South Africa is always going to come up with some tennis players because they've got the history here. They used to have tournaments here...

then they keep on disappearing and they keep popping back up. And I really hope South Africa could have a nice tournament moving forward," Federer said, per Sport24.