Laver Cup in Berlin: Tennis rivals Zverev and Alcaraz as doubles partners

Rod Laver was the first to arrive. He got out of the limousine at the Brandenburg Gate, passed the barrier and, leaning on a stick, walked to a small chair where he waited for the photo opportunity, patiently blinking in the evening sun. Then the teams and their captains, all in suits with pocket squares and highly polished shoes, lined up and took the 86-year-old into the middle. Rod Laver, that was the defining first impression of the tournament, is the man for whom young tennis millionaires polish their shoes – or have them polished.

The Australian now lives in the USA. He has travelled a long way to attend the Berlin edition of the event that bears his name and was launched seven years ago by Roger Federer and his management. Federer created the Laver Cup in 2017 partly for his own enjoyment, but also to honour a man whose phenomenal performance in tennis is unmatched, but has been somewhat forgotten in the ever-increasing succession of sensations in sport: in 1962 and 1969, Rod Laver won the real Grand Slam: the titles of all four major tournaments within one calendar year, in Melbourne, Paris, Wimbledon and New York. No one else has managed that, not even Federer, the Swiss maestro.

The Laver Cup is therefore a tribute: a memorial competition for a living legend – even if it is not a real competition. It is more of an invitational tournament, a show in which two teams, a European selection and a team from the rest of the world, compete for a trophy. The concept is borrowed from the Ryder Cup in golf; the Laver Cup is also led by two prominent captains: Björn Borg, 68, and John McEnroe, 65, rivals from the 1980s and still on the tour in tennis as a kind of Rolling Stones equivalent. Alexander Zverev, number two in the ATP rankings, vehemently denies that it is a fun event: “The best players in the world are in one team, you don’t want to disappoint them,” says the 27-year-old. Moreover: “If it wasn’t serious, we wouldn’t be training here for two to three hours every day.”

The event has now received the blessing of the men’s tour ATP

No one wants to embarrass themselves among their colleagues. This time, Team Europe includes four-time Grand Slam winner Carlos Alcaraz, 21, Russian Daniil Medvedev, 28, Norwegian Casper Ruud, 25, Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, 33, and Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, 26: all of them ranked in the top 12.

When Federer’s prestigious trophy is at stake, everyone seems to be happy to pack a tuxedo and bow tie – despite complaints about the strain of an eleven-month season, which substitute Jan-Lennard Struff describes as “brutal”. The event is now listed in the ATP calendar, so it has the blessing of the men’s tour, even if no points are earned for the world rankings. In return, each player on the winning team is paid a quarter of a million dollars, the losers get half; no mention is made of any entry fees. Sponsors support the tournament. The cheapest single tickets on the three match days in the arena at Berlin’s Ostbahnhof were 63 euros, the most expensive are four-figure prices – for just two matches each, either in the midday or evening performance.

For this price, you can watch matches that look like they were generated on a games console: Alexander Zverev and Carlos Alcaraz as doubles partners on Friday – two players who fought fiercely in the final of the French Open, with the Spaniard coming out on top. On the other side, in Team World, are Ben Shelton and Taylor Fritz – the same Fritz to whom Zverev recently lost in Flushing Meadows.

The charm of this tournament is also that the players forget their egos for a moment in front of Rod Laver, alongside McEnroe and Borg. Daniil Medvedev describes it like this: “Normally you don’t want a rival to win. This is the only week of the year when you can watch it in a relaxed way.” You pat him on the back and say: go ahead and win.

Federer himself made history at the Laver Cup two years ago when he played the last match of his career in this competition. In Berlin, captains McEnroe and Borg are stepping down after seven years, and Andre Agassi and Yannick Noah are to take over their roles in the future. The young professionals would happily polish their shoes for these tennis heroes too. Not that that would be enough for McEnroe: “Woe betide you if you lose in my last match!” he shouted to his Team World.