Paul Rouget, Media365: published on Saturday September 21, 2024 at 10:14 a.m.
First captains of the European and world selections of the Laver Cup, Björn Borg and John McEnroe are experiencing their last edition in Berlin. Even if Roger Federer, creator of the competition, would have liked to see the two legends stay “forever”.
The seventh edition of the Laver Cup began on Friday in Berlin, with the victory of the Argentinian Francisco Cerundolo against the Norwegian Casper Ruud (6-4, 6-4). Europe equalized thanks to the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, who beat the Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis (6-1, 6-4), then took the advantage after the success of the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov against the Chilean Alejandro Tabilo (7-6, 7-6). But the world team came back to level, the Americans Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton winning their doubles against the Spanish-German duo formed by Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev (7-6, 6-4). A balanced start therefore, during this last one for the two captains, Björn Borg and John McEnroe, who will respectively give up their place to Yannick Noah and André Agassi at the head of the European selection and that of the rest of the world from the 2025 edition of this competition created by Roger Federer.
“No sadness yet”
Present in Germany, the Swiss, who finally met Alcaraz, spoke about the farewells of Borg and McEnroe, he who would have “loved them to be captains forever”, as he explained in an interview for Eurosport. “I haven’t felt any sadness from them yet to be honest, said Federer. But for me, this week is very much about John and Björn. And even the trio with Rod Laver, these three legends reunited for one last week. Then of course, I hope that Björn and John will come back to pass the torch in a way to Yannick and André and that they will always be friends and guests of the event as inaugural captains.” Winner of the last two editions of the Laver Cup after four inaugural defeats, McEnroe has a message for his players: “Don’t lose for me in my last match, okay?” Will they listen to the American? Answer on Sunday.
