The second edition of the Laver Cup is due in about a month. Roger Federer is especially looking forward to finally getting to know Novak Djokovic a little better.
The fact that Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have also built up an almost friendly relationship during the years of their sporting competition was demonstrated, for example, by the Swiss’s visit to the opening of the Rafa Nadal Academy in Mallorca in autumn 2016. The two legends had really intensive contact at the Laver Cup in Prague, in the course of which Federer and Nadal competed together in doubles for the first time.
In the second edition in Chicago, the Spanish first in the world rankings will be missing, Nadal gives preference to the Davis Cup semi-final in France. But Novak Djokovic will give himself the whole thing for the first time, at the premiere in the Czech Republic the newly crowned Cincinnati winner had to fit injured as is known.
Chicago, however, has the Serb on the calendar, and the event’s initiator, Roger Federer, is particularly looking forward to that. “I’m really looking forward to the Laver Cup, where we’ll all be on the same team,” said the 20-time major winner in Cincinnati. “And spending some time with Novak, which I haven’t actually done before.”
The week together with Nadal in Prague was very cool. And also a sign of the comradeship that reigns on the ATP tour. And persuaded the older players to join the tennis circus for another year after all. “Maybe Rafa and I set the pace a little bit at the Laver Cup.”
But the generation before Federer also had characters that made it easy for young players to find their way around the tour. Federer mentioned Patrick Rafter, Tim Henman or Gustavo Kuerten in this context.
And as a great moral authority, the Canadian double legend Daniel Nestor. “Having people like him in the locker room was really important in shaping the character,” Federer concluded. Basically, there are many more great guys on the men’s tour than you would think.