Roger Federer returned to Arthur Ashe Stadium for the first time since 2019, playing an exhibition during the tournament's Fan Week alongside Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick and John McEnroe.
The five-time US Open champion has been explicit that this is not the start of anything: a competitive comeback has been categorically ruled out.
As a piece of programming it worked exactly as intended — a full stadium on a week that usually belongs to qualifying, and a reminder of how much of the tournament's atmosphere is built on its own history.
Summarised by TennisArena from reporting by Sports Illustrated — https://www.si.com/onsi/serve/news/ranking-top-5-us-open-storylines-heading-into-new-york-01m0xb12k9v1