Laver Cup Piece
It says something about the rapid hold the Laver Cup has taken on the ATP Calendar that when the French Tennis Federation unilaterally switched the dates of the 2020 French Open to September 20-October 4th, one of the first points of concern was that it clashed with this competition. The expectation on the eve of the inaugural edition in 2017 was that it would be an entertaining but ultimately exhibition-type event designed primarily to honour one of the sport’s greatest ever players in Rod Laver. Two years later, this could not have been less the case; 2017 and 2018 in Prague and Chicago respectively saw hearts broken, tears shed and roars of triumph – and this was just from the players.
Before going any further, the exact nature of competition is as follows: six European players (Team Europe) match up against six players from the rest of the world (Team World) over a three-day period. Each day has four matches; three singles and one doubles rubber, and regarding player participation, the only explicit rules are that every player has to play one singles match and no player can more than two singles (or play the same player twice). The added nuance and uniqueness to the competition is that there is more to play for each day; every win on Day 1 is one point, but counts for two on Day 2 and three on Day 3. Europe had triumphed the previous two years and look exceedingly likely to do so in 2019, boasting a formidable line-up comprising Federer and Nadal, two of the greatest ever to play the game, as well as a host of young talent in Dominic Thiem, Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas and the mercurial Italian Fabio Fognini, who was enjoying a career-best season on the tour. By contrast, Team World appeared thin on paper; three of their team members (John Isner, Milos Raonic and Jack Sock) had spent large parts of the season out through injury and the remaining players (Nick Kyrgios, Denis Shapovalov and Taylor Fritz) weren’t exactly lighting up the season form-wise. But the fact that the 2019 Laver Cup managed to go down to the final match before Team Europe sealed a hattrick of victories shows the beauty of the competition: form and results go out the window and it becomes about who can handle the pressure and rise to the occasion – a situation which more often than not favours the underdogs.
- Day 1 – Geneva played host for this year’s event and the guttural roar from the crowd when hometown hero Roger Federer came out for the players’ introduction was deafening – I honestly hadn’t experienced an atmosphere like it. Because of the point system, the first day is usually when the weaker players from both teams contest the singles matches, and the first two definitely took a while to warm up. Dominic Thiem edged Denis Shapovalov in a scrappy affair that came down to which player was the more solid – it could’ve gone either way but Thiem eventually squeezed through 13-11 in the match tiebreak. The next match proved the biggest shock of the entire weekend, with Jack Sock ousting Fabio Fognini in straight sets. Sock won nine singles matches throughout the entire course of the 2018 season, prompting a plunge down the rankings from the Top 10 to well outside the top 100, and, despite his unquestionable doubles prowess and skills as a team player, his call-up to Team World was a surprise to say the least. Yet Captain McEnroe’s faith was repaid – Sock was lucky that Fognini more resembled your local club player than a member of the top 10; spraying errors all over the place, especially in the first set. Despite getting it together a bit more for the second set, he couldn’t raise his level sufficiently to topple the American, and Sock managed to level the scores at one apiece. After an interval, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Taylor Fritz contested what was by far the best singles tie of the day: similar to the first in its pendulum-like nature, with Tsitsipas taking the first set 6-2, before Fritz hit back to romp the second 6-1. The Greek’s superior belief and big-match experience may have proved the difference, as Fritz blinked with a double fault at 7-7 in the match tiebreak, ultimately costing him the match. The final doubles match was another case of close but no cigar for Team World – the condemning stat for them being 1/16 break points converted, showing how taking opportunities as opposed to creating them was the major issue in this clash. Europe chose this fixture to deploy Roger Federer for the first time, and the Swiss maestro didn’t disappoint: clearly the MVP out of the four and showed good player management in getting his partner Zverev through some evident early nerves so he could some of his best tennis towards the end of the match as well. A successful Friday for Team Europe, ending Day 1 three points to one ahead.
- Day 2 – Day 2 was kicked off with an intriguing matchup between World’s John Isner and Europe’s Alexander Zverev. Twelve months prior in Chicago, Zverev narrowly claimed the victory in a tight super-tiebreak, and at a set and 4-3 up looked to be heading for the same fate. But this format suits the giant American, largely due to his capability of executing 25-30 minutes of completely lights-out tennis during spells in matches. A significant raise in level from Isner alongside some fortune at times was too much for Zverev, blowing the German away 10-1 in the deciding breaker to bring the situation to parity at 3-3. Then came the turn of the marque clash, and it didn’t disappoint. It was the third instalment in the Roger Federer-Nick Kyrgios Laver Cup story – Part 1 was an absolute thriller, with Federer’s win sealing Europe’s first Laver Cup in Prague, while Part 2 was very much a damp squib; Federer brushing Kyrgios aside 6-3 6-2. This chapter was much more of the 2017 mould – both players weren’t at their best but there were some excellent and intricate rallies and actually it looked for a large part of the match that Kyrgios was more likely to nick the two points; he exerted much greater pressure on return. Once Federer stole the second set 7-5 the outcome seemed somewhat inevitable, and after obtaining the early advantage in the 10-point tiebreak he didn’t relinquish anything on serve. Rafael Nadal followed suit in the next match against Canadian Milos Raonic; again like his fellow legend he didn’t look fully convincing at times and the 6-3 first set scoreline could easily have been reversed, considering Raonic had 8 unconverted break points in the first set. But he was clinical when his opportunities came and played a supreme tiebreak in the second set to avoid the match going into a decider, giving Europe a commanding 7-3 lead going into the final match. Yet, aside from Federer, the only other undefeated entity in Laver Cup’s history was the doubles combo of Kyrgios/Sock, and this feat continued, with the brash and energetic pairing making use of their chemistry and greater experience to overcome Nadal/Tsitsipas in an engaging three-set battle. Day 3 still had all to play for
- Day 3 – The final day of the Laver Cup contained everything one could have possibly hoped for from the outset – drama, great tennis, knife-edge matches and more than a little uncertainty. As is the norm for the Laver Cup, it started with the final doubles match – the previous two European pairings splicing to create Federer/Tsitsipas who took on Sock (who else) – this time partnered by John Isner. Once again, it took a sharply contested match tiebreak to split the two teams, but the difference was World’s highlight-reel moments; a couple of magic returns from both Isner and Sock was enough to claim victory, and put World 8-7 ahead – exactly the same position they had been in on home turf last September. Then came both the drama and uncertainty. The schedule stated the next match would be Nadal vs Kyrgios; an absolute mouth-watering clash considering the developing rivalry that had been brewing throughout 2019, but before the day’s play had begun, there were rumours flying around questioning the fitness of both men. The ambiguity of the situation was only heightened when, having been asked whether Nick was “ready to go”, McEnroe flatly replied “No, he’s not. We need to have a conference”. However, those watching on TV would have been privy to the inside information: at a changeover the court microphones could clearly pick up Isner saying “especially because Fritz is playing next match”. The eventual outcome was the young American taking on Austrian Dominic Thiem, presenting a wonderful opportunity for both players to become a Laver Cup hero. The match was played at a consistently high-level but had a very cagey atmosphere to it; compared to other matches there were many more longer rallies and at times neither one looked comfortable taking the initiative and being aggressive. Both sets were won by the player who had actually looked less assured throughout the set, as Fritz utilised scoreboard pressure to steal the first set from under Thiem, who hit back to play a brilliant second-set tiebreak having been under significantly more pressure over the course of the set. To Fritz’s credit, he didn’t let his head drop, even when he went down a very early minibreak in the super tie-break, but once he reversed the deficit to go 3-2 up, he steamrolled past the Austrian, who couldn’t answer to his pinpoint serving and potent forehands. Without question, it was the biggest win of the 21-year-old’s fledgling career and gave World an unprecedently sizeable lead at 11 points to 7. At this stage, one match was all World needed, but in the short-term that would require Isner to do what he had marginally failed to do last year: beat Roger Federer. The Swiss maestro played at a sub-par level for most of that match, but unfortunately for Isner there was no repeat of this. Pretty much from the first point to the last prime Federer was on show, particularly impressive in how easy he made it look to return one of the game’s greatest serves. Isner forced a tiebreak in the second but never looked remotely like threatening Federer in the same manner as Chicago. Again, the passion and emotion displayed by Federer was remarkable; more understandable here considering the must-win nature of the match for Team Europe. Thus, the entire three days came down to a one-match shootout. At 11-10 to World, there was no possibility of the scores being tied (as they nearly were in Prague two years ago, which would’ve led to a deciding doubles clash). Alexander Zverev was to take on Milos Raonic – both players having lost their first singles match the previous day. In all honesty, this showed over the entire course of the match; level-wise, the match was far from captivating and proved a relatively limp finale to what had been an excellent long weekend of tennis. Aside from the quality, another interesting point from this match-up is that both Zverev and Raonic are quite individualist players, in that they don’t feel as comfortable or are responsive to a team environment as the rest of the players on their teams, which downplayed the atmosphere on court to an extent. After a lacklustre opening set, Raonic hit back to bring the match to one set apiece. An unforgettable moment was Roger and Rafa’s pep-talk/lecture to Zverev during the second set break – disclosing the full nature of the conversation would entail using profanities but the general jist of the message was positive body-language only and pull yourself together. This did the trick – Zverev simply played a much better match-tiebreak than his opponent, and really succeeded at getting the crowd on side. The deal was sealed with a forehand cross-pass, with Zverev collapsing to the floor for the obligatory team pile-on. What was evident in Europe’s celebrations on-court after their triumph ins that they are certainly not getting tired of winning this competition.
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