Carlos Alcaraz hopes his performance at the upcoming Laver Cup will be enough to impress tennis great Roger Federer.
The Spanish world No.3 is playing in the team tournament for the first time. This year’s three-day event is being held in the German city of Berlin with a group of players from Europe taking on the rest of the world. No ranking points are on offer at the Laver Cup but it does have a spot in the ATP calendar which enables organisers to use promotional tools from the governing body of men’s tennis.
Alcaraz is the second-highest-ranked player participating this year after Alexander Zverev. Daniil Medvedev, Casper Ruud, Taylor Fritz and Grigor Dimitrov are also taking part. Earlier this week, co-founder Federer told reporters he is looking forward to watching the Spaniard in action after declining to hold a second practice session with him several years ago.
“I barely know Carlos Alcaraz so I’m really excited to see him play for the very first time,” Federer said on Tuesday. “I only practiced once with him at Wimbledon when he was still a junior.
“And then the next day, my coach said, ‘Do you want to warm up with him again?’ and I said, ‘No, it’s okay, I’d rather warm up with his coach, who was my generation, Juan Carlos Ferrero.’ I can apologise to Carlos this week.”
As for Alcaraz, he is looking forward to showing his skills to the Swiss maestro who will be watching in the stands. The 21-year-old recently played in the Davis Cup where he won all three of his matches. He is targeting a strong end to the season following a surprise second round defeat at the US Open.
“For me it’s great. I will try to be ready for that time, try to put on a show, to put a good point on the match just to make him enjoy watching the match. But for me, it’s great to hear those words from him,” Alcaraz said of Federer.
“I didn’t meet him yet here and during the tournaments, but I would love to see him and talk a little bit with him and yeah, I’ll be ready to make him enjoy the match.”
As for the competition itself, Alcaraz is ‘super excited’ to be teaming up with those who are usually his rivals on the Tour. As for his preference for a doubles partner, the four-time Grand Slam champion says Dimitrov is at the top of his list.
“I’m super excited to live this experience here in the Laver Cup. I think it’s a unique event that I’m [now] supporting my opponents within the whole year, so it’s gonna be a little bit weird for me, but I think it’s gonna be fun,” he said.
“During the year, we don’t talk too much, we’re on our own with our team. But now it’s going to be different, we’re going to support each other, we’re going to laugh and talk a lot. So I’m going to try and enjoy it as much as I can this week.
“This format as well is unique and I’m going to say funny! So, I’m super excited to start the event to see how it’s going to be on Friday.”
This year is the seventh edition of the Laver Cup. Team Europe leads Team World 4-2 in their head-to-head but has lost the two most recent meetings.
