{"id":95939,"date":"2026-01-16T16:11:40","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T21:11:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=95939"},"modified":"2026-01-16T16:12:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T21:12:16","slug":"where-to-watch-roger-federer-australian-open-opening-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/01\/16\/where-to-watch-roger-federer-australian-open-opening-ceremony\/","title":{"rendered":"Where to Watch Roger Federer Live at the Australian Open Opening Ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-pm-slice=\"1 1 []\">For the first time since his semifinal loss to Novak Djokovic at the 2020 Australian Open, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/12\/12\/roger-federer-historic-return-australian-open\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Roger Federer will return to a fully packed Rod Laver Arena<\/a>&#8211;this time for the inaugural <a href=\"https:\/\/ausopen.com\/articles\/news\/ao-welcomes-roger-federer-back-rod-laver-arena-inaugural-opening-ceremony\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Australian Open opening ceremony<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Here is a complete guide on how you can catch the twenty-time Major champion once again live in action.<\/p>\n<h2>All the Details: Time, Date and Where to Watch<\/h2>\n<p>The Australian Open has introduced a brand-new tradition ahead of its Sunday start to the main draw, with an official Opening Ceremony now scheduled to launch the tournament. And who better than Federer, a six-time champion in Melbourne, to headline the first-ever ceremony at Melbourne Park.<\/p>\n<p>But the Swiss icon will not be alone. Federer, who recently practiced on Rod Laver Arena and, in true Federer fashion, edged current world No.13 Casper Ruud in a tiebreak, will be joined at the Opening Ceremony by Andre Agassi, Lleyton Hewitt, and Patrick Rafter, with all four legends set to compete in a special \u201cBattle of the World No.1s\u201d event, which is shaping up as one of the most anticipated moments of opening week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOBPUcxTLe1\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 3508px; aspect-ratio: 3508\/2480;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<p>Tournament director Craig Tiley, speaking about this new initiative by Tennis Australia, <a href=\"https:\/\/ausopen.com\/articles\/news\/ao-welcomes-roger-federer-back-rod-laver-arena-inaugural-opening-ceremony\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">said<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis inaugural Opening Ceremony will mark the start of a new tennis season in spectacular fashion. I can\u2019t wait to see Roger back on Rod Laver Arena, along with other greats of the game Andre, Pat and Lleyton. And I know fans across Australia will be just as excited to share this moment with him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Roger Federer v Casper Ruud Tiebreak | Australian Open 2026\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TzA0pe2DQ_s?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The Opening Ceremony will begin at 7:00 PM local time in Melbourne, which corresponds to 3:00 AM in New York and 8:00 AM in London.<\/p>\n<p>Fans around the world can watch the entire event live and for free on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/live\/OlZ-BalYdio?si=gFMrcCI1Mv6yhBb1\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Australian Open\u2019s official YouTube channel<\/a>, making this once-in-a-lifetime occasion accessible globally.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo Credit: Matthias Hauer\/GEPA via USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the first time since his semifinal loss to Novak Djokovic at the 2020 Australian Open, Roger Federer will return to a fully packed Rod Laver Arena&#8211;this time for the inaugural Australian Open opening ceremony. Here is a complete guide on how you can catch the twenty-time Major champion once again live in action. All [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5608,"featured_media":95869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2],"tags":[935,811,2340,17238,114],"class_list":["post-95939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australian-open","category-featured","tag-andre-agassi","tag-casper-ruud","tag-lleyton-hewitt","tag-patrick-rafter","tag-roger-federer"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5608"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95939"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95948,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95939\/revisions\/95948"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}