The 2021 Laver Cup will get underway in Boston on Friday, when Team Europe hopes to beat Team World for the fourth time in a row dating back to 2017.
Even though the Europeans are without the Big 3 of Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, and Rafael Nadal, they still have a team that the World cannot compete with on paper. But Team World–made up of Americans, Canadians, an Aussie, and an Argentine–hopes that home-court advantage in the United States is a factor.
It’s something the visitors are prepared for heading into the weekend.
“This is something that we are expecting,” Stefanos Tsitsipas assured. “We’re going to fight against it and try and prove ourselves with our game. At the end of the day, our tennis is what counts the most.”
“I think the stadium is going to be maybe against us a little bit,” said Alexander Zverev. “But we are who we are. We are six Top-10 players sitting here. A lot of us are in incredible form right now. We do know that we are the favorites. Everybody is looking forward to the challenge.”
“I think it’s toughest when you’re not ready and everybody is against you,” added U.S. Open champion Daniil Medvedev. “That’s when you’re going to have problems. But we are all ready for it. We’re just going to try to win no matter what.”
Team Europe certainly isn’t going all out on Friday, when each of the four matches is worth one point (they are worth two on Saturday and three on Sunday). The Europeans’ singles lineup consists of Casper Ruud, Matteo Berrettini, and Andrey Rublev–their bottom three players.
Ruud opens against Reilly Opelka, Berrettini faces Felix Auger-Aliassime, and Rublev kicks off the night session against Diego Schwartzman.
The doubles match will pit Zverev and Berrettini against John Isner and Denis Shapovalov.
who ya got?
Europe has the horses….they win the race!