You can admire his art in Prague now, as he participates on the premiere year of Laver Cup. This event will bring not only his performance to the eager audience, but also other famous tennis stars. “We’ve come here to win,“ said the Swiss tennis player.
He uses plural intentionally: the new event will present him side by side with other European stars, such as Rafael Nadal, Alexander Zverev, Tomáš Berdych or Marin Cilic.
Standing against them in the Prague’s O2 arena and trying to succeed would be the World team with Juan Martin del Potro, John Isner or Nick Kyrgios.
“We want to play well, enjoy it and let’s be honest, it would be really great to win the historically first Laver Cup for Europe,“ said Federer after his arrival to Prague.
What are you most looking forward to?
I’m looking forward to seeing the arena, the court there, because I know some specials are being prepared. It’s nice to be back to Prague.
What about your back, that’s been bothering you during the summer?
It’s all right. It was really important for me to get some rest. I was quite destroyed after the US Open. I was tired and many things hurt. I feel much better now and I’m glad that I had the chance to take a little rest.
Do you have any idea how many matches would you want play during Laver Cup?
I’ll try to be as available as possible. But in the end it will be the decision of our captain Björn Borg. I will always give him complete information about me and about how I feel. If I feel I would be an asset, I will play. If someone else does better during the trainings, then he should play. I hope I would be able to play a double with Rafo and at least one single. We’ll see which day will I play, because this decision will be affected by the tactics as well (Friday matches count as one point, Saturday for two and Sunday for three).
How important is Laver Cup for you compared to Davis Cup and the Olympics?
It’s a new tournament. Let’s hope this will be the beginning of a long and famous tradition. It’s hard to compare a tournament to Olympics, which has been here forever. Davis Cup is actually the very same thing. It’s simply a different kind of events, which are incomparable. The best would be if people found the time to come over, see for themselves and make their own opinions.
Can the players actually give it everything after a long and exhausting season at an event that resembles an exhibition?
The season is long and demanding, that’s why Laver Cup only takes three days, I guess, so that no player has to play every day. We should all simply manage. It’s hard to play five days a week four or five weeks straight. But playing three days, we do that all the time at our trainings; only now it will be matches. I’m sure it will be so much more than just an exhibition. I don’t really like the exhibitions. It shouldn’t be seen so, because we play as a tribute to Rod Laver. Our captain Björn Borg will definitely want to win and John McEnroe will not want to lose either.
Have you talked to the other players about Laver Cup?
Mainly with Rafo and Tomáš. Then when we got to know who’s in which team, we talked about it at the US Open. We weren’t too sure about the people in the teams before that, but when this came clear we had Isner, Querrey and others coming to us and making jokes about not being allowed to talk to each other once we’re in competing teams. But it’s probably going to get more serious now. I’m excited we have a strong team now and we will support each other.
You’ve shared the Grandslam titles between you and Rafael Nadal, two guys in their thirties. Don’t you feel as if it was a different year than 2017?
Yeap, it reminds me of years 2005 or 2006. Just happening ten years later. It’s great. I was so happy Rafo won the US Open, he’s managed a great grandslam. I think both of us are rather surprised by the grandslam titles. It may have been helpful that the other players had health issues, but we helped them the very same way in the previous years when we were not healthy. Even with all that, it’s just a dream season. We have a great chance to finish it up big style in here and during other tournaments. I’m looking forward to seeing Rafo in person so I could congratulate him.
Is it going to be a strange feeling to have Rafo in the same team?
A bit. It’s a strange, but good feeling. We’ve been meeting for so long already, we’ve had great battles together and it will be great to have him on my side, for instance in doubles. Or at least to see his game and admire it together with his personality. Sometimes you watch him and you hope he would lose, because playing with his rival would be easier. I will support him very much during all of the coming matches. It will be nice to support Rafo.
Who would you like to play the doubles with?
I was thinking about what would the best pair for us be. I would love to play with Rafo, but I could also be a good pair with Tomáš Berdych. I don’t really know about Thiem and Zverev, they hit hard and they both play tennis so well that they must be great in doubles. It will be interesting to see what will captain Borg come up with. Cilic also has a great service, this may also be an alternative, we’ll see. There are only three doubles, so we need to choose wisely.
