For the fifth time, the world’s best tennis players meet for the Laver Cup to compete against each other as “Team Europe” and “Team World”. For a long time, Europe seemed unbeatable, but this time everything is different in the shadow of Roger Federer’s farewell: “Team World” is clearly behind on the last day.
The world selection of tennis professionals has won the Laver Cup for the first time. The American Frances Tiafoe prevailed in London against the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas in the tie-break match with 1: 6, 7: 6 (13:11), 10: 8 and thus provided the decisive points for the team of 13: 8 John McEnroe. Tsitsipas missed four match points in the second set. The previous four editions of the team competition had been won by the European selection, in the last two years the German top player Alexander Zverev had won the decisive victory for Europe. This time Zverev was absent due to injury.
The Europeans started the final day with an 8:4 lead, but were unable to win a game on Sunday. Among other things, Serbian Novak Djokovic, who had previously scored four points from two wins on Saturday, surprisingly lost 3: 6, 6: 7 (3: 7) to Felix Auger-Aliassime from Canada. On the last day of the team competition, there were three points for every win – and on a black Sunday for the European pros, “Team World” scored enough points before the final individual between world number two Casper Ruud and Taylor Fritz to be in the lead .
This year’s edition was all about the farewell to Roger Federer, who ended his career on Friday. Together with long-time rival Rafael Nadal, Federer lost his doubles encounter against Tiafoe and Sock 9:11 in the match tiebreak at the end of the first day.
After the last big match of the Swiss’s unique career, it wasn’t just the “Maestro” who shed tears: Nadal, who had come especially for the match, also cried uncontrollably at Federer’s side. “It wasn’t easy to handle all the things that day,” said Nadal emotionally. “With Roger leaving the Tour, a large part of my life is going too,” said the Spaniard before flying back to his pregnant wife on Saturday.
