5th edition of Laver Cup to start from today: Roger Federer to delight fans for one last time

For what has been the 18-year-long rivalry, it’s all going to end tonight with Roger Federer and Nadal on the same court for one last time, this time in the same team though. They’ve played 40 times against each other.

The 5^th edition of the Laver cup will start taking place today evening. This is going to be the last time when the tennis legend Roger Federer will play with his arch-rival and good friend Rafael Nadal. Besides, this will be the last time the Big 4(Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray) play in the same tournament. The Swiss superstar had announced his retirement last week and also stated that the Laver Cup would be his last tennis tournament as a professional.

History of Laver Cup

This will be the fifth edition of the Laver Cup. Laver Cup was the brainchild of Federer and his team to dedicate a trophy to one of the legends Rod Laver. It has two teams competing against each other in singles and doubles formats. The team Europe is led by Bjorn Borg and the team World by John McEnroe The first Laver cup was played in 2017. Since then it has been played three more times in 2018,2019 and 2020 with each time Team Europe prevailing over Team World.

Fedal for the one last time

For what has been the 18-year-long rivalry, it’s all going to end tonight with Roger Federer and Nadal on the same court for one last time, this time in the same team though. They’ve played 40 times against each other.

They both played for the first time in 2004 in the Miami Masters. The 17-year-old Nadal beat the top seed Federer in straight sets hinting at what was rivalry going to be like.

They both played in record 24 finals including record 9 grand slam finals and 12 ATP Masters 1000 finals. Both contemporary legends have had a few of the greatest matches played ever including the 2008 Wimbledon Final which went for almost five hours and Nadal emerge victorious breaking Federer’s streak of record  65 wins on the grass court.

• Federer faced Nadal in Record 4 finals (2006,07,08,11) and 2 semifinals(2005,11) getting beaten everytime.
• Nadal faced Federer in Wimbledon 4 times with Federer prevailing over thrice and Nadal once (2008).
• The two have met each other four times in the Australian Open with Spanish having 3-1 positive H2H over Swiss Maestro.
• Surprisingly, they’ve never met each other in the US Open.

Notable finals

• 2005 Miami masters – Federer defeats Nadal 2–6, 6–7(4–7), 7–6(7–5), 6–3, 6–1
• 2006 Italian Open – Nadal d Federer 6–7(0–7), 7–6(7–5), 6–4, 2–6, 7–6(7–5)
• 2007 Wimbledon – Federer d Nadal 7–6(9–7), 4–6, 7–6(7–3), 2–6, 6–2
• 2008 Wimbledon – Nadal d Federer 6–4, 6–4, 6–7(5–7), 6–7(8–10), 9–7
• 2009 Australian Open – Nadal d Federer 7–5, 3–6, 7–6(7–3), 3–6, 6–2
• 2017 Australian Open– Federer d Nadal 6–4, 3–6, 6–1, 3–6, 6–3

Laver Cup Details

https://twitter.com/SonyLIV/status/1440254477328687104

The Laver Cup starts today 23^rd September to 25^th September. The two teams are as follows

• Team Europe consists of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray with Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas and Norway’s Casper Ruud captained by Swedish legend Bjorn Borg.
• Team World captained by John McEnroe, consists of Alex de Minaur (Australia), John Isner (USA) and Jack Sock (USA), Felix Auger-Aliassime (Canada), Taylor Fritz (USA), Diego Schwartzman (Argentina),
• The matches will be telecasted live on Sony Sports and will be streamed on Sony LIV.