Test Match: Laver Cup Faces Proving Ground

By Richard Pagliaro | Friday, September 22, 2023

 

“This is a great test for an event that I believe in, the Laver Cup,” Team World captain John McEnroe said.

Photo credit: Laver Cup Facebook

Multiple missions intersect among the lines at Laver Cup this weekend.

Team World aims to defend the Laver Cup for the first time, while competing stars assemble to solidify the team competition’s future.

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This is the first Laver Cup in which none of the Big 4—Laver Cup founder Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal or Andy Murray—are playing.

The question is: Can Laver Cup survive and thrive without the iconic champions who joined forces to bring buzz and global popularity to the event?

Hall of Famer John McEnroe, who has captained Team World every year, sees this weekend in Vancouver as a proving ground for Laver Cup.

“I think this is, you know, a great test for an event that I believe in, the Laver Cup, because of what you just talked about there: the opportunity,” McEnroe told the media in Vancouver at the pre-event press conference. “We don’t have these all-time legends, but you could have future Grand Slam winners all over the place. You don’t know. “

McEnroe sees Laver Cup as a tennis “gift” that must be respected—by the ATP, the players and the schedule—if it is to flourish on the level of golf’s Ryder Cup, which Laver Cup organizers have sometimes cited as a model.

“That’s exciting. They get a chance to sort of stand up,” McEnroe said. “I think this is where hopefully tennis will realize the gift it was given—this is my opinion—by having Rod Laver and Roger Federer associated with a team event like this. I think it would be a shame if this thing didn’t continue to, you know, exist in the calendar.”

A year ago, fans packed London’s O2 Arena to support Federer in his emotional farewell that saw a stacked Team Europe feature Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray.

This year, Top 10 standouts Holger Rune and Stefanos Tsitsipas are both out with injury. Team World captain Bjorn Borg’s squad stars Andrey Rublev, Casper Ruud, Gael Monfils, Hubert Hurkacz, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and Arthur Fils.

Four Americans—Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe, Tommy Paul and US Open semifinalist Ben Shelton—form the core for Team World, which also features Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime and Argentinean Francisco Cerundolo.

Swiss superstar Federer has said the goal is to bring the team format to an individual sport—and spread tennis to cities that traditionally have not hosted the pro circuit.

“I think it’s very exciting. I think the format seems to be rock solid,” Federer said. “As we went into it, I thought with the team about all different variations of the things that can happen, and so far it seems great. Obviously in five years we will have then been in many different places.

“Then eventually, I don’t know, Laver Cup will…