- Title: Team Europe looks to continue its Laver Cup dominance as third tournament nears
- Date: 18th September 2019
- Summary: ***WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** TEAM EUROPE, INCLUDING SWISS PLAYER, ROGER FEDERER, SPANISH PLAYER RAFAEL NADAL AND AUSTRIAN DOMINIC THIEM ON STAIRS / GERMAN ALEXANDER ZVEREV, GREEK STEFANOS TSITSIPAS AND ITALIAN FABIO FOGNINI ALSO ON STEPS TEAM WORLD CLIMBING STEPS (LEFT TO RIGHT) AMERICAN JACK SOCK, CANADIAN DENIS SHAPOVALOV, AUSTRALIAN NICK KYRGIOS, AMERICAN TAYLOR FRITZ, CANADIAN MILOS RAONIC FEDERER, NADAL AND THIEM TALKING FEDERER DURING INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (English) SWISS TENNIS PLAYER, ROGER FEDERER, SAYING: "I mean, I love playing here. It is my favourite country in the world. It is where I want to grow old, it is where I want to see my kids grow up, so for me, of course, while I am still playing tennis and playing in many places around the world, it is never as nice than to play at home, so it is nice to be here." FEDERER DURING INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (English) SWISS TENNIS PLAYER, ROGER FEDERER, ON RAFAEL NADAL'S PRESENCE, SAYING: "So happy that he's here. You know, I can't be thankful enough, you know looking back in hopefully 20 years that I can always say Raf was there at the first one in Prague. He was there, he supported us, and he believed in the idea. Same here (for this year), he could not be more pumped up for this event, he just won the U.S. Open, it would have been so easy for him to say like, 'look, I need a break'. But he said 'no, my break is coming afterwards, I will push it all aside and I am doing this because I really believe in the concept of the Laver Cup and I believe in you guys'. And it is nice to have a friend like that." VARIOUS OF TEAM EUROPE ON STAIRS PLAYERS FROM BOTH TEAMS ON BALCONY THROWING TENNIS BALLS TO FANS FEDERER, NADAL AND ROD LAVER THROWING BALLS TO FANS FORMER U.S. TENNIS PLAYER AND CAPTAIN OF THE 2019 LAVER CUP WORLD TEAM, JOHN MCENROE DURING CEREMONY MCENROE ARRIVING FOR INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (English) FORMER U.S. TENNIS PLAYER AND CAPTAIN OF THE 2019 LAVER CUP WORLD TEAM, JOHN MCENROE, SAYING: "Well, I would think that the person, the people behind it, Rod Laver and Roger Federer help, and being in Switzerland. But of course, players love to play in an atmosphere like that and it is nice to be part of it in a tiny way, so it's nice that people still try to do things outside the box." PEOPLE TAKING PICTURES WITH THEIR PHONES TEAM EUROPE DURING CEREMONY / (LEFT TO RIGHT: CAPTAIN BJORN BORG, VICE CAPTAIN THOMAS ENQVIST, ROBERTO BAUTISTA AGUT, FOGNINI / TSITSIPAS, ZVEREV, THIEM, NADAL AND FEDERER) LAVER CUP TROPHY (SOUNDBITE) (English) FORMER SWEDISH TENNIS PLAYER AND CAPTAIN OF THE 2019 LAVERCUP EUROPE TEAM, BJORN BORG, SAYING: "We are the defending champions, so we hope to try to defend our title anyway, I know it's going to be very difficult because Team World has a tough team and the previous years, there's been very close two matches, but Team Europe this year, we have good players, but anything can happen, but I am sure it is going to be some good tennis that people will enjoy and definitely it's going to be a lot of close matches."
- Embargoed: 2nd October 2019 16:23
- Keywords: John Isner preview John McEnroe Laver Cup Bjorn Borg Rod Laver Roger Federer Nick Kyrgios Rafael Nadal
- Location: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
- City: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
- Country: Switzerland
- Topics: Sport,Tennis
- Reuters ID: LVA002AX6R1VJ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: The Swiss city of Geneva welcomed some of the best male tennis players in the world on Wednesday (September 18) two days ahead of the start of the third edition of the Laver Cup.
The tournament, a three-day team event between Europe and the rest of the world, became an official part of the ATP Tour in May this year following its runaway success in its first two editions in Prague and Chicago.
Federer, one of the instigators of the team event who hails from the Swiss city Basel, said he was happy to see the tournament played in his native Switzerland. He will play alongside his rival and friend Rafael Nadal who just won the U.S. Open.
Former U.S. player John McEnroe, a seven-times Grand Slam singles champion, captains Team World while Team Europe are led by his former rival and 11-times Grand Slam Swedish champion Bjorn Borg.
Team Europe have won both previous editions and are solid favourites to make it a hat-trick, leaving American John Isner to plead with the Geneva crowd to show some love and support for the underdogs.
The event, named after Australian great Rod Laver, who won 11 Grand Slams between 1960 and 1969, drew sellout crowds last year as a number of top-ranked players such as Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic took part with the Europeans winning 13-8.
(Production: Marina Depetris, Cecile Mantovani) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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