Laver Cup Day 1: Carlos Alcaraz will make his debut

09/19/2024 07:00 AM

This weekend there will be the 2024 edition of the Laver Cup at the Uber Arena in Berlin. Team Europe is clearly in the lead of Team World this year, even without 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal. The Spanish legend - who lived some memorable moments in this event - is not at the top of its form and decided not to participate a few days ago.

The European team will count on 4-time Grand Slam champion Carlos Alcaraz, who won the French Open and the Wimbledon Championships this year (in addition to the silver medal at the Olympics in Paris). There will also be Daniil Medvedev, Casper Ruud, Alexander Zverev, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Grigor Dimitrov, who took the place of Nadal.

Team World will rely mainly on young American talents, who have expressed a great tennis during the US Open. The team led by John McEnroe will also be able to count on Francisco Cerundolo, Alejandro Tabilo and Thanasi Kokkinakis, who will try to put in difficulty a team clearly stronger in theory.

The Laver Cup has been a great success since its first edition in 2017, thanks to the huge investment of Roger Federer and his team. The 20-time Grand Slam champion has arrived in Berlin these days and also spoke about the future of this event. The 2024 edition of the Laver Cup promises to give fans emotions and surprises, after last year in Vancouver was a little neglected due to the absence of top players.

Meanwhile, the order of play for Day 1 has been announced. On Friday, September 20th, Casper Ruud will face Francisco Cerundolo in the first match, followed by Stefanos Tsitsipas and Thanasi Kokkinakis. The Australian ace defeated the Greek champion during the 2024 US Open. In the night session, Grigor Dimitrov will face Alejandro Tabilo and Carlos Alcaraz will play doubles with Alexander Zverev against Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton.

A marquee lineup for Day 1 of Laver Cup Berlin 2024 is set. For the best prices on remaining tickets for Friday's sessions, visit the Uber Arena box office in person.#shareubspic.twitter.com/1RWJ1E8ci3

— Laver Cup (@LaverCup) September 19, 2024

Roger Federer’s name is naturally back in the tennis world this week for the holding of the Laver Cup, the competition named after the Australian legend Rod Laver with the Swiss among the great founders together with his manager Tony Godsick. In a recent interview with Mopo, the 43-year-old native of Basel focused on his friend and great rival on the court, Rafael Nadal, who was initially among the participants at the event scheduled this year in Berlin. Beautiful and very interesting words reserved by the winner of 20 Slam titles to the address of the Spanish, which seems to be close to the time of the official and definitive retirement from tennis.

King Roger focused on this aspect: "Time is eating you up. In the end it may be useful to make a decision at a given time. And if it were to end right away, you would relax and think: 'Fortunately there is no more training, luckily there are no more matches,' the former player told the magazine. A thought that he knows from direct experience of what happened to him two years ago.

There are many doubts among fans about Rafa, who has not cleared the doubts if he will return to the field in 2024 (one of the hypotheses could be the Davis Cup Finals) or will schedule a comeback next year: "I had high hopes that somehow he could play a match but he simply told us that he preferred not to do it, that he can’t and doesn’t feel ready" is the background told by the Swiss about the Laver Cup of 22 times Slam champion.

Then he gave him personal advice: "I think he has to decide what to do next and I think this is the moment he’s going through now. He did everything for this sport. It would be phenomenal if it could last another season, but only Rafa can answer this question" he explained during the interview.

The Swiss Maestro – who played his last match in 2022 – is proud of this event: "The idea of the Laver Cup is that rivals become teammates. The fan experience, what you live through. When you're there from the first moment to the last, you want the experience to be fantastic. One would wish that the Laver Cup lasted longer or took place more often throughout the year.

You almost miss it when it's over because it's only three days of high intensity, and you see the best tennis players in the world competing against each other, and then also being part of the teams. I think seeing them interact on the bench is something you don't get to see very often, especially from different countries. It's rare to find such well-formed teams. The overall experience must be truly wonderful."