-Chicago, Illinois
Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic played doubles together for the first time ever on Friday night in Chicago at the Laver Cup. It will most likely be the only time they ever play doubles together. Two of the top three players in the world showed at times why they are two of the best players in the history of the game. They also showed why they don’t play a lot of doubles as well.
The sold out crowd in the Windy City were treated to an entertaining match but the more experienced team won in the end. Jack Sock, who won the past two Grand Slam doubles titles at both Wimbledon and the US Open partnered with hard serving Kevin Anderson to defeat Federer and Djokovic 6-7, 6-3 10-6 to give Team World their first points of the event.
Despite two very entertaining singles matches won by Kyle Edmund and Diego Schwartzman on Friday and one dominant performance by Grigor Dimitrov giving Team Europe a 3-0 lead in the Laver Cup, the packed house at the United Center were eagerly anticipating the final match of the night featuring the No. 2 and No. 3 players in the world.
The highlight, or lowlight of the opening set came when Djokovic accidentally hit Federer with a forehand right into his back. The reaction on the Serbian’s face was priceless realizing he just made contact with the co-founder of the event. During the changeover Federer could be heard saying to his partner “That’s why we don’t play doubles”, Djokovic replied “Oh my god, I think my heart stopped for three seconds”
Djokovic and Federer won their first set as a team, needing a tiebreak to do so. Federer put away a forehand volley to win it 7-5 with his partner displaying a trademark fist pump and even a friendly shove to his rival as they walked back to their seats.
The first break of the match came in the fourth game of the second set. With Team “Sockerson” putting Team “Djokerer” in a 0-30 hole, Anderson proceeded to hit a big forehand return winner eventually breaking Federer at Love.
After an Anderson ace, Sock used his crafty play at the net to put a forehand volley away down the middle evening the match.
The final match tiebreak (first to ten points win by two) was even until a Federer double fault seemed to deflate the great champions. The duo did manage to get within a point at 7-6 but a Federer mistake at the net and a huge backhand winner from Sock sealed the deal for Team World.
“It was a lot of fun, it was a great experience, I loved it,” said Djokovic. “Obviously I wanted to win as much as Roger did but these guys came up with some big shots when it mattered”
“I thought we actually played pretty good today,” said Federer.”Again like I did also with Rafa last year in terms of excitement it was similar to me to be honest. To team up with someone of his calibre is just a treat”
Sock, who has won five doubles titles in 2018 with four different partners, had never played with Anderson before. Anderson, born in South Africa, went to university in the Chicago area.
Saturday’s Laver Cup schedule will see new father John Isner take on Sascha Zverev. That match will be followed by a rematch of last years Laver Cup finale between Federer and Nick Kyrgios. Djokovic will face off against Anderson for the first time since meeting in the Wimbledon final. The night cap will see Kyrgios and Sock team up in doubles against Goffin and Dimitrov.
