While fans are carrots for “More Tennis” at De Laver Cup, Roger Federer Diep down for Team Europe – World Tennis Magazine

By Kelley Busby

Contributor to WorldTentennismagazine.com

The eighth edition of the Laver Cup was closed in a good way with Taylor Fritz who defeated Alexander Zverev in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6 (4), so that the victory for Team World was achieved with a 15-9 victory. Only a few days earlier it almost seemed like a foregone conclusion that Team Europe, with World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz that rose ahead, would rise to victory.

Early in the tiebreak the Californian crowd unexpectedly came behind Sasha, and I asked a few people in the neighborhood:

Why? Why not root for a resident of California on his home grass?

We want more tennis! At the moment it had been back-to-back competitions for more than seven hours.

We want to see it go to the Deciding Doubles competition for the very first time ever.

Me: So you don’t care if Team World wins or loses because they may not win if it doubles?

We wants the Match decision doubles to take place here for the first time, and we want the team world to win tooreplied an enthusiastic, well -dressed gentleman with a team world pin.

I coach the high school tennis and I am personally not such a risk-in-law, so my team would rather close earlier than later, which Fritz did indeed, shoot several Down-Line winners and secured the match with a clean backhand volley to the open field.

With a smile after the game, Fritz said: “I still think I would come to the net, to be honest with you. This week I could let it work, and I think that many of them are just a little more aggressive from the ground. It just makes the Volleys a little easier. I don’t know what happened at that match point, because normally that would be a real, really tight volley for me.”

Indeed, Fritz radiated calmly, just like his captain Andre Agassi, the proverbial Zen master, who, it could be argued, was a decisive factor in the victory of the team world. There were also echoes from Ted Lasso in his statement after the game: “Everyone played a role in making this one of the most memorable weeks I have ever spent on a tennis court. Just inexplicable. They never stopped believing.” Agassi turned out to be a galvanizing force and was certainly entertaining to watch while he communicated with his players and fans during the three -day event, and his flair for the dramatic both real and well intact.

In the meantime, Roger Federer was always present, often sitting with his agent Tony Godsick and his parents, and watched the competitions with a warm, elegant reserve. I couldn’t help it, but I wondered if some of him would have preferred to put the Europe Blue Blue Team, Alcaraz, Ruud and Company Coaching. Who knows, maybe his leadership boost may have changed the outcome. Federer has previously noticed:

“There is something in me that Team Europe is. I am happy that the team world wins, I don’t get wrong, but somehow I can feel it deep inside … I want Europe to win. I like to be in the tennis atmosphere. Maybe one day I will be the leader of the team.”

Here you hope.