Roger Federer’s tearful farewell to tennis as an active player is over. But true to his promise, the winner of 20 Grand Slams has not said goodbye to tennis.

The day after he retired from a doubles match with longtime rival Rafael Nadal – the two sat together crying after the match – Federer was on hand Saturday to advise his European singles assistant, Matteo Berrettini.

“Having had the opportunity to go through what we went through yesterday is something that will forever be etched in my heart and my brain. I’m not lying when I say I’m there for him,” Berrettini, 26, said. , finalist at Wimbledon last year.

Federer doesn’t know for sure what he will do in the future but he vowed to stay in the sport saying ‘I won’t be a ghost’.

And what advice did Federer give Berrettini to beat Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime of the Rest of the World team 7-6(11), 4-6, 10-7?

“Roger told me to be decisive with the right hand…to give it more leverage,” Berrettini said. “And let it go down with the reverse.”

His triumph in the opener of the second of three days of the team event founded by Federer’s administrative company was followed by the victory of Taylor Fritz of the Rest of the world over Cam Norrie of Europe 6-1, 4-6, 10-8.

With that, the overall score was 4-4. The first team to reach 13 points wins the tournament.

Later, Serbian Novak Djokovic was playing, in his first tournament since winning his 21st Grand Slam title at Wimbledon in July.

In addition to facing US Open semi-finalist French Tiafoe in singles, he played doubles with Berrettini against Jack Sock and Alex de Minaur.