The Swiss Roger Federer, considered the best tennis player of all time, will put an end this Friday to his brilliant career in which he won 20 Grand Slam tournaments, among other titles, in the Laver Cup, the exhibition tournament that is played in London and in which he will compete alone in doubles and with a luxury partner: the multiple Spanish champion Rafael Nadal.
Federer and Nadal, one of the greatest rivalries in the history of tennis, will come together to form the doubles of the European team that will play this Friday not before 5 pm against the Rest of the World, which will oppose the Americans Jack Sock and Frances Tiafoe .
The historic day at the London stadium The O2 Arena will begin at 9 with the first of the three singles matches of the contest that will last until Sunday, and will be televised by ESPN and the Star + platform.
Federer left behind weeks of uncertainty and speculation when he announced last Thursday the final date for his retirement from tennis, and in his last time on a court the wish he asked for as soon as he set foot in London will be fulfilled, to share a team with “Rafa”, another giant owner of 22 Grand Slam titles, an absolute record.
The European team, which won the four previous editions of the Laver Cup played in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021 (it was not held in 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic reached its peak), will have as captain a glory like the former tennis player Swedish Bjorn Borg.
The formation of the Europeans will include the complete “Big Three”, since the Serbian Novak Djokovic will also be there, and they will complete the Norwegian Casper Ruud, the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas and the Scotsman Andy Murray, plus the Italian Matteo Berrettini as a substitute and a sure replacement for Federer in singles matches.
The Rest of the World, for its part, will have an Argentine presence, as will Diego Schwartzman, plus the Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime, the Australian Alex De Miñaur and the Americans Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe and Jack Sock.
The captain of the Argentine team will be another tennis great, the American John McEnroe. As reported by the Laver Cup, the schedule for the first of the three days is as follows (each day there will be three singles matches and one doubles match):
Friday: at 9: Casper Ruud vs. Jack Sock. Next: Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Diego Schwartzmann. At 3:00 p.m.: Andy Murray vs. Alex De Minaur. Next: Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal vs. Jack Sock and Frances Tiafoe.
Federer was number one in the world for 310 weeks in total, a figure only surpassed by Djokovic’s 373 weeks. The Swiss holds the record for the greatest number of consecutive weeks as number one, with 237. In addition, he has finished the year at the top of the ranking five times, the same as the Spaniard Nadal and the American Jimmy Connors.