Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic will be on the court at the same time–and on the same side of the net, too–when the second annual Laver Cup begins on Friday in Chicago. Federer and Djokovic will contest the Day 1 doubles match for Team Europe against Team World’s Jack Sock and Kevin Anderson.
In Team Europe’s victory last year in Prague, Federer played doubles with Rafael Nadal and prevailed in a third-set tiebreaker over Sock and fellow American Sam Querrey.
“We have had so many great battles in all the singles courts, and to finally team up together I think is going to be very special for both of us,” the Swiss said of Djokovic. “I think we still have to talk over it a little bit exactly maybe either who’s going to take the lead or how do we play exactly.”
“This is what this competition is all about,” the Serb added, “bringing us all together.”
“Yeah, [Federer and Djokovic] is obviously going to be a legendary team,” Sock commented. “We got a little bit of it last year (against Federer and Nadal).”
Three singles matches will precede Friday’s doubles showdown: Grigor Dimitrov (Europe) vs. Frances Tiafoe (World), Kyle Edmund (Europe) vs. Sock (World), and David Goffin (Europe) vs. Diego Schwartzman (World). All Friday matches are worth one point before increasing to two on Saturday and three on finale Sunday.
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who ya got in this exho?
Fed’s a very good doubles player. Djokovic is … better than he used to be, which was pretty bad, and he IS in form. Sock’s a GREAT doubles player. Querrey, well, he’s a question mark. If he serves well, they should be able to win. If he has a bad day he’s a real liability out there.
I’ll go with Team World, partly because TE have never played together before and TW has.
Isn’t it odd that TW is using Sock in doubles on the first day when the points are lowest?? I’d save him for the last day. He’s a guaranteed 3 points in doubles and a dead loss in singles.
i meant in the overall competition, not just the doubles match
Team World will play Sock in every doubles match, not just Day 1
Ah. I thought there was some sort of rule. Good plan though.
Anderson, not Querrey of course. Anderson should be better.
It seems that there’s not much spark between Fed and Djoko. I guess they’re not that close compared to Fed/Rafa. I think Rafa is more talkative and always voices out his ideas/thoughts, and Rafa is a bit ‘bossy’ too! Djoko to me does respect Fed when playing doubles together and Fed looks the ‘boss’ here, compared to the ‘bossy’ Rafa last year when Fed looked like he’s letting Rafa be the boss.
we already knew that!
It seemed that there’s mutual understanding between Fedal, and they’d good rapport, so much so that they really complemented each other so well in doubles, except for that one point where Rafa almost caused Fed to break his back!
I think Fed respects and likes Rafa, and he mentioned that it’s interesting listening to Rafa and knowing and understanding his thought process.
Rafa is a better doubles player than Roger and Rafa has a better understanding of technique too. As Roger commented last year at the Laver Cup:
‘After this, we will be rivals again, thank God, or unfortunately, however you want to see it, but this was something very special. It’s been an absolute pleasure sharing the court with Rafa on the same side of the net. Knowing you can trust him in the big moments, seeing his decisionmaking, seeing his thought process was very interesting, and I will take these memories for a lifetime, for sure.’
link to my comment @ 8:48 AM
https://www.tennisworldusa.org/tennis/news/Rafael_Nadal/47642/nadal-unforgettable-day-federer-it-was-a-success-/
I think Sock with Isner may be a better pairing in doubles, Anderson/Sock don’t seem to click as a team; team world probably reserves that for the last day when each win is worth 3 points.
Sock is a really good doubles player, knowing well how to come into the net at the right time to finish with a winner. At least team world gets a point on the first day!
I thought Team World would win the doubles but that’s because I don’t think Djoker is good at doubles but it was Roger who lost them the match.
No one thinks Djoker is good at doubles. That’s why they played on the first day. Djoker used to play DC doubles with Zimonjic who was excellent; I don’t think they ever won a match together?
^^^My username is shown as Anonymous above.
I hav a feeling Kyrgios Federer today will be much better than the USO match
nope
#KyrgiosIsTheNewStanford
#IronyIsEverywhere
Team World finally got a singles win, in the last match I was expecting it. Could it be that the Djoker just isn’t taking this exho all that seriously? Well, on to the doubles match. Sock may be one of the world’s best doubles players but Kyrgios is not – last year his doubles skills appeared to be somewhere south of Djokovic’s.
Of course, Djokovic is taking it seriously. They are all taking it seriously. Exho or not, none of them has gone there to mess about and be the one who costs their team the cup and no one likes to lose. Let’s just give Anderson credit where credit is due.
I think they’re given appearance fees, not playing for free so they have to put in the effort. They play to win the Cup, not for fun.
How’s the arrangement for Day 3? Is it still one doubles and three singles?
Could it be Sock/Isner vs Fed and __? And the singles – I think Fed, Djoko and Sasha should be playing the singles. I think if I’m to choose who to field for the world team, I’ll pick Anderson vs Fed; Kyrgios vs Sasha and Diego vs Djoko. Anderson and Kyrgios may have their chances to win the singles, and the world team most likely the doubles, so the world team may still have the chances to win the Cup.
Day 3
Federer/Zverev vs Isner/Sock
Federer vs Isner
Zverev vs Anderson
Djokovic vs Kyrgios
https://lavercup.com/scores-results/2018-results-leaderboard
Isner? Isner cant beat Fed, Anderson may have better chances. Anderson can beat any of Fed, Djoko or Sasha so he may beat Sasha to get 3 points.
So, it may be Djoko vs Krygios (Krygios again) to decide which team wins the Cup.
Isner vs Fed h2h is 5:2 and Isner won their last match in Paris M1000 in 3 sets.
Federer vs Isner h2h is 5:2 to Fed but Isner won their last match in 2015 in the Paris M1000 in 3 sets.
Anderson is in better form now; Isner’s win over Fed was in 2015, thats three years ago.
Isner beat Rafa at the Laver Cup last yer even though Rafa was 6:0 up in their h2h at the time, Rafa is now 7:0 up. Isner said he played with I quote: ‘absolutely nothing to lose’. He said he just went for it so he could beat Fed today if he serves well and doesn’t make too many errors.
Indoor hard court is Rafa’s worst surface by far but it’s Fed’s best, even better than grass these days, I think. I think Kando can beat AZ and that it may come down to Djoker v Kyrgios.
I do agree that Anderson is in good form now.
The tennis channel is showing doubles with Fed/Zverev versus Isner/Sock. Fed and Zverev up a set. This looks like a good match. I have not been following the Laver Cup, but tuned in out of curiosity to see the tennis.
See how happy Team World is? They’re there to win the Cup, not playing as if it’s just an exho!