Thursday 22 September 2022 – 12:51
LONDON, 22 September / WAM / Five years after its foundation, the Laver Cup will see the end of the career of Swiss tennis player Roger Federer through its fifth edition, which begins on Friday and will continue until next Sunday in the British capital, London.
Federer, 41, recently announced his retirement from professional football by participating in this tournament, which he himself had the idea of founding and played the most important role in bringing it to life.
Federer will compete in this edition of Team Europe, which includes his traditional Serbian rivals Novak Djokovic and Spaniard Rafael Nadal, and the team also includes Norwegian Casper Ruud, Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, Briton Andy Murray, Cameron Nouri and the Italian Matteo Bertini.
Team Europe faces the World Team, which includes the Americans Jack Sock, Tommy Paul, Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe, the Canadian Felix Auger Aliazemi, the Argentine Diego Schwartzman and the Australian Alex de Minor, while the American John Isner has announced his apologies for not participating and replacing him. The compatriot Tiafoe.
The European team is coached by Swedish legend Bjorn Borg, assisted by compatriot Thomas Enqvist, while the world team is coached by American legend John McEnroe, assisted by his younger brother Patrick McEnroe.
Federer aspires to lead the European team to maintain full points and win the championship for the fifth consecutive year.
Contrary to tournament rules, which stipulate that each player of the two teams must participate in at least one individual match and a maximum of two individual matches, Federer has asked McEnroe not to play any individual matches in this version due to the injury conditions he has. suffered in the last period, which forced him to retire.
Federer preferred the last word in his professional career to be through the doubles match he will play on Friday, to be the 1750th match of his career at the World Tennis Association Championships. And on Saturday the Italian Bertini will play the singles.
Thus, Federer’s match in the quarter-finals of the English Open (Wimbledon) on 7 July 2021 became his last professional singles level, knowing that it coincided with the celebration of 23 years since his first singles match. professional in his career, which was in the Gstaad championship on 7 July 1998.
Federer, winner of 20 titles in the four Grand Slam tournaments, expressed his hope at a press conference last night that the doubles match he will play tomorrow in the tournament will be alongside his arch rival Nadal, knowing that he had played together in the double game in the tournament. first edition of the same tournament in 2017.
And Federer has given a rare opportunity to tennis fans around the world to witness his presence in a team with Nadal, his biggest and oldest rival, winner of 22 Grand Slam titles.
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WAM / Ahmed Zahran / Dina Omar
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