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      Alexander Zverev Under ATP Investigation Into Domestic Abuse Allegations

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      The German tennis star has denied he abused Olya Sharypova during a series of physical altercations she says took place in 2019.After months of delay and complaints from players and tennis officials, the men’s professional tennis tour announced Monday that it would investigate Alexander Zverev after accusations of domestic abuse made by a former girlfriend.Zverev, 24, a rising star from Germany ranked fourth in the world in men’s singles, has strongly denied accusations that he was violent with Olya Sharypova during a series of physical altercations, and did so again in a statement on Monday. Sharypova, a Russian national, has not filed any criminal charges over the incidents, which, she said, took place in 2019. The two began dating when they were teenagers, but the relationship ended more than a year ago.Ahead of the U.S. Open, Zverev sought an injunction in court in Germany to prevent further reporting on the allegations by Slate, which had published a lengthy article on them by Ben Rothenberg, a freelance tennis writer who sometimes writes for The New York Times. The court granted the injunction, and Zverev pointed to it as a confirmation of his innocence.While the court stopped short of that, it agreed with his argument that the evidence presented in the article was not sufficient under German law to justify the impact on him. The decision stated that such an article needed to have enough balance so that it did not leave the impression that Zverev was guilty of the acts Sharypova accused him of committing. Slate has continued to stand by the reporting in the story and has not removed it from its site.Multiple players have said the ATP needs to address the Zverev situation directly and change its policies about domestic violence allegations.In his statement on Monday, Zverev said: “I have always been in full support of the creation of an ATP domestic violence policy. Moreover, I welcome the ATP investigation in the matter and have been asking the ATP to initiate an independent investigation for months.”Andy Murray, a former world No. 1, has complained several times this year about how he felt the ATP was dragging its feet on the issue, long after several North American sports leagues changed their policies to allow players who are the subject of domestic violence allegations to be suspended.“Obviously it was something that needed to change in terms of how some of the situations have been handled, I think, this year,” Murray said after the ATP said it would consider changing its policy. “I just didn’t really feel like the sport had much of a sort of stance on it, really.”On Monday, the ATP said it fully condemned any form of violence or abuse and would investigate such allegations related to conduct at an ATP member tournament.Massimo Calvelli, chief executive of the ATP, called the allegations against Zverev “serious.”“We have a responsibility to address them,” Calvelli said in a statement. “We hope our investigation will allow us to establish the facts and determine appropriate follow-up action.”The ATP announced in August that an independent panel would review and make recommendations for changes to its policies regarding player conduct, including those players who are the subject of abuse allegations.Zverev has suggested he will cooperate with an investigation, but it is not clear what form that cooperation will take. The ATP has until now not had any clear rules for investigating and taking action against players who are the subject of domestic abuse allegations before the matters are adjudicated in a court of law.Sharypova has said she has no intentions of filing charges or a suit against Zverev for the altercations, which allegedly took place in the United States, China and Switzerland while Zverev was competing.Zverev is scheduled to play at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., this week and is planning to play at the ATP Tour Finals in Italy next month.Since the allegations, Zverev has parted ways with his agents at Team8, the agency founded by Roger Federer and his agent Tony Godsick, though he did participate last month in Federer’s tournament, the Laver Cup. Zverev’s main sponsors include Adidas and Rolex, which so far have stuck by him despite the allegations. More

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      Pro Tennis Finds New Cities to Play In, but Will It Return?

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      The pandemic caused many tennis events to be canceled or rescheduled. It also created opportunities for U.S. cities to throw one together.SAN DIEGO — The small tennis stadium was packed and in full roar as Daniel Vallverdú watched Casper Ruud and Grigor Dimitrov trade blows and breaks of serve on Saturday.“Five weeks, we did it all in five weeks,” said Vallverdú, the managing director of the inaugural, and perhaps final, San Diego Open.Despite the planes that droned overhead, the new tournament did not have much runway: about a month to secure temporary stands and sponsors and then stage an ATP 250 event. These remain extraordinary times for sports and those who attempt to organize them.The coronavirus pandemic has created upheaval on the tennis tour, canceling tournaments like Wimbledon in 2020 and forcing many events to be rescheduled. But the situation has also generated unexpected opportunity for American cities that would normally have been unable to find a slot on a packed international calendar.Chicago, once a regular stop on the women’s tour, has staged two new WTA events since August. San Diego, a city with a rich tennis culture, made its debut on the ATP Tour.“It was one of those things where we were in the right place at the right time,” said Bill Kellogg, one of the San Diego Open’s organizers. “We happened to be in a spot where we could say yes when they asked if we could do it with the China circuit caving in. I know guys that had been trying to get ATP tournaments for years and years and had no luck whatsoever.”When 2021 tournaments in Asia were canceled because of the pandemic, the men’s tour had vacant space to fill ahead of the BNP Paribas Open tournament in Indian Wells, Calif., a prestigious 12-day event that had been moved from March to October because of the pandemic.Vallverdú, a former player who has coached top players like Andy Murray and Dimitrov, knew there might be an opportunity in nearby San Diego with its nearly perfect weather and no tour-level event.Most ATP tournaments hold “sanctions” that guarantee their spot on the tour and that can be sold, just as N.F.L. franchises can be sold. But the ATP Tour has been offering one-year licenses during the pandemic to make up for lost playing opportunities. Thirteen tournaments have operated on these one-year licenses in 2020 and 2021.Vallverdú contacted his friend Ryan Redondo, the new executive director at the Barnes Tennis Center, a public facility with 25 outdoor courts that is a hub for the junior game.Redondo, once an all-American tennis player at San Diego State, knew the power of big events firsthand. At age 5, when he attended a 1989 Davis Cup match between France and the United States in San Diego, the playful French star Henri Leconte brought Redondo onto the court for a hit when John McEnroe took a bathroom break.“Part of my strategic plan and vision was we should have every level of tournament possible here at the Barnes Center, from red ball events for 3-year-olds to ATP and WTA events,” Redondo said. “We need all of that to inspire the kids.”He spoke with two potential benefactors, Kellogg and Jack McGrory, who thought Redondo had to be talking about 2022, not 2021. But they quickly agreed to become the still-notional tournament’s co-sponsors.“We said yes in 24 hours, and we had no idea what we were getting into,” McGrory said. “It was much more complicated than we expected.”McGrory said they got the initial funding for the tournament with a $100,000 grant and $200,000 loan from the Southern California Tennis Association Foundation, of which Kellogg is president. McGrory said they were able to raise $850,000 in sponsorships and contributions and another $800,000 from tickets and concessions. The ATP contributed the prize money of more than $600,000.“We’re going to be able to pay off the loan and put some money back into the Barnes Center,” McGrory said.The tournament, with its modest stadium court expanded to 2,000 seats, was sold out for its last four days. Above all, there was a fine field with Murray, a former No. 1, and eight top-20 players: a lineup worthy of a higher-level event than an ATP 250. The proximity to Indian Wells was a big factor in the elite players’ participation, and the winner turned out to be the 10th-ranked Ruud, a Norwegian who has won five titles in his breakout season.But it remains uncertain, even unlikely, that Ruud will be able to defend his title in San Diego. A one-year license provides no guarantee that the tournament will return to the city. What it does provide is a chance to showcase a new venue.“I have a lot of titles to defend next year, and I know four of them will be played next year and for this one we will have to see,” Ruud said on Sunday as he cooled down on an exercise bike after his 6-0, 6-2 demolition of Cameron Norrie in the final. “It’s obviously tough. The ATP is hosting over 60 events a year and all over the planet, so it’s not easy to find a week to fit in. This year, San Diego was able to do this in five weeks, so I see no reason why they couldn’t do it again, and I hope they will do it again not just because I won but it was a great city and great weather. These are perfect conditions for us to play in. It’s not too hot, not too humid and great atmosphere.”San Diego has produced some fine tennis players. Maureen Connolly, who was known as Little Mo, dominated the women’s game in the early 1950s, achieving a Grand Slam by winning all four major singles titles in 1953. Karen Susman won the Wimbledon women’s singles title in 1962. Kelly Jones was ranked No. 1 in the world in men’s doubles in 1992. Recently, CoCo Vandeweghe broke into the women’s top 10 in 2018 and Taylor Fritz reached No. 24 in the ATP singles rankings last year, becoming the top-ranked American man. Brandon Nakashima, ranked 79th at age 20, is one of the most promising American men’s prospects.But there has never been a main ATP Tour event in San Diego until now, and there has been no tour-level event in San Diego County since the women’s tournament in Carlsbad moved to China in 2014.The United States, once the mainstay of the men’s and women’s tours, has steadily lost tournaments to Asia and Europe. In recent years, the Indian Wells event has been the only ATP event in California, and none of the biggest West Coast cities have had a regular men’s tour event.The decline of American tennis has played a role, particularly the decline of American men’s tennis, but the shift also reflects the more global nature of the sport and the new economic strength of Asia.The pandemic, however, has canceled most Asian events for the last two years, a particularly big blow to the women’s tour, which had moved its year-end championships and much of its late-season lineup to China. The Shanghai Open, one of the top events on the men’s tour, also was canceled in 2020 and 2021.It remains unclear what approach China will take going forward, just as it remains unclear whether the San Diego Open was a one-off or the first chapter of a long-running tennis story.But the tournament certainly got the ATP’s attention. Ross Hutchins, the ATP’s chief tour officer, was initially intending to travel straight to Indian Wells from Europe. Instead, after hearing about the buzz at the Barnes Center, he moved up his travel plans and came to San Diego to observe and meet with the tournament’s team.“It’s a huge credit to them and the tournament how they not only embraced the concept but how they delivered,” Hutchins said Sunday. “And to do it in five weeks and to have the outcome they delivered is phenomenal.”Potential options for San Diego include buying another tournament’s sanction, persuading the ATP to break longstanding policy and create a new sanction, or negotiating another one-year license.Nothing is guaranteed, but McGrory sounded confident at Sunday’s awards ceremony as he turned to the finalists.“This is not going to be their last time here,” he said. More

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      Ex-Real Madrid ace Fernando Gago ‘splits from tennis star wife after being caught cheating with her best friend’

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      FORMER Real Madrid midfielder Fernando Gago has reportedly split from his tennis star wife after allegedly cheating on her with her best friend.Gisela Dulko, 36, is said to have red-carded the retired footballer after catching him in bed with dance school owner Veronica Laffitte.
      Ex-Real Madrid and Argentina footballer Fernando Gago has reportedly split from his wife after allegations of cheating with her best friendCredit: Instagram giseladulko
      Gago quit from his role as Club Atletico Aldosivi managerCredit: Getty
      Argentinian journalist Cinthia Fernandez claimed on Argentine TV: “Gisela apparently found them in her own home, in her own bed.
      “She opened the door and there was Fernando Gago with this other woman.”
      She added: “They got married ten years ago and have three children. They always kept a low profile.
      “They separated because of his unfaithfulness. He cheated on her with her best friend.
      “That group of friends were mums at their kids’ school. Gisela has changed them to a different school.”
      The astonishing claims come as Gago, who announced his retirement from football last November following a string of injuries, resigned as manager of Club Atletico Aldosivi after six straight defeats.

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      The senior squad, based in the Atlantic city of Mar del Plata, currently plays in the top division in Argentina.
      Unconfirmed local reports say Gago’s infidelity is thought to have speeded up his decision to quit.
      There has been no official comment so far to the cheat claims by Gago, who made 61 appearances for Argentina and also played for Boca Juniors, Roma, Valencia and Velez Sarsfield.
      His wife, who reached a career-high tennis ranking of world No26 and won four WTA titles as a singles player but specialised in doubles where she achieved the world No1 ranking, has also stayed silent.
      Neither Dulko or Gago have updated their Instagram for several weeks.
      The former footballer’s last post on Instagram, where he still describes himself as Aldosivi’s manager, was 41 weeks ago.
      BROKEN TO LOVE
      Gago, 35, married his former tennis star wife in the upmarket Buenos Aires neighbourhood of Palermo in July 2011 when the ex-footballer was still at Real Madrid.
      They are said to have started dating after Gago asked a tennis player friend for her number.
      Many tennis players and footballers were at the star-studded party celebrating their marriage.
      They have three young children aged eight, six, and three.
      Gisela Dulko enjoyed a successful tennis career and is now mum to three kidsCredit: Instagram giseladulko
      Gago made 121 appearances for Real Madrid between 2007 and 2011, scoring onceCredit: AP:Associated Press More

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      Laver Cup: Team Europe Wins Fourth Straight Title

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      After Europe’s fourth straight win, an organizer promised Team World would win “at some point.” He didn’t say when.BOSTON — After three down-to-the-wire editions, the Laver Cup finally came up short of drama.It happens, and considering European players’ long-running dominance of men’s tennis, it is frankly more surprising that the first three Laver Cups were suspense magnets than that this year’s edition was a disappointing blowout.Even without the stars who make up the Big Three in men’s tennis — Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic — Team Europe had nothing but top 10 players in its six-man squad in Boston. Its opponent, Team World, did not have any, and it showed in the final score, 14-1, which was by far the most lopsided in the event’s brief history.Despite all the careful planning and big investment in this team competition, the bottom line is that Team Europe and Bjorn Borg, its captain, have won every Laver Cup. They have an excellent chance of remaining undefeated in London next year and beyond considering the youth and talent of rising stars like the 2021 U.S. Open champion Daniil Medvedev, his Russian countryman Andrey Rublev, Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece and Alexander Zverev of Germany.That competitive imbalance is potentially a big problem for the Laver Cup, the international team event created by Federer and his management company Team8 in 2017.“I think a Team World win would be good for everyone,” said John McEnroe, Team World’s captain. “I think the event needs it. I was wondering why Russia was part of Europe. I don’t think it is, but that’s just me.”One cannot blame McEnroe for thinking creatively, even desperately, at this stage. Unfortunately for McEnroe, much of Russia is indeed in continental Europe, and the country traditionally takes part in European sporting competitions. Even if eastern Russia is in Asia, Medvedev and the Russians will remain part of Team Europe, according to Tony Godsick, the Laver Cup’s chief executive.“We won’t make the change,” Godsick said Sunday night. “We’re not going to adjust this thing. It will be cyclical. I promise you, the world team will win at some point.”The Laver Cup, with its three-day format and blue and red color scheme for team uniforms, was modeled after golf’s venerable and successful Ryder Cup, and certainly took the modeling too far this time by being played in the same country on the same weekend.That was not to the upstart tennis competition’s benefit, even though the crowds and the atmosphere were terrific in Boston. A search of “Cup” on Google news on Sunday night produced a top-10 that was all Ryder Cup results from Whistling Straits.Godsick said the scheduling overlap was not intentional. Both events were postponed in 2020, and he said that the Laver Cup has a designated week on the tennis schedule that could not be changed.The Ryder Cup, which was first contested in 1927 in Worcester, Mass., had to evolve to become a major event and commercial juggernaut. Originally a competition between the United States and Britain, it only became a runaway success after players from other European nations joined the British team in 1979.But if the Russians are remaining part of Team Europe in the Laver Cup, not much other tinkering can be done in the geography department. Team World already is open to every non-European nation and had players this year from Argentina (Diego Schwartzman), Australia (Nick Kyrgios), Canada (Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime) and the United States (Reilly Opelka and John Isner).For now, McEnroe is 0-4 as its captain, and his Laver Cup rivalry with his old friend Borg has not been nearly as balanced as their rivalry when they were playing classic Grand Slam finals in the 1980s.“I normally do like you,” the gray-haired McEnroe said to the gray-haired Borg on Sunday at the awards ceremony in the TD Garden. “I hate your guts right now.”McEnroe was only half kidding. Arms folded in his courtside chair, he looked like a man experiencing indigestion for much of this long weekend.Technically, the Laver Cup is an exhibition. It offers no ranking points even though it is a sanctioned ATP Tour event.But the captains and the players have never treated it as an exhibition, and Team World’s failure to compete in Boston was certainly not linked to a failure to care. Their expressions were often anguished and their body language often tense as they lost critical point after critical point, usually in the match tiebreakers that substitute for third sets.“It’s not an exhibition,” Opelka said. “If this was an exhibition, it would not have been 14-1. I can guarantee you that.”Opelka, a towering and bearded player at 6-foot-11 who lost both his matches in his Laver Cup debut, confessed that he had been skeptical until he experienced the event himself this year.“It looked too good to be true,” he said of the close finishes in 2017, 2018 and 2019. “And then I got here, and the way Johnny Mac started speaking about it changed everything. He’s a true legend. That was priceless being able to spend time with him.”The Laver Cup’s capacity to bring together tennis’s past and present stars for meaningful exchanges is one of its strengths. So is its format, in which victories are worth one point on the first day, two points on the second and three points on the third. That was intended to prevent a meaningless final day. But while four matches were scheduled on Sunday, Europe clinched victory after only one, with Zverev and Rublev defeating Opelka and Shapovalov, 6-2, 6-7 (4), 10-3. It was yet another close match that went Europe’s way. It was also a potentially edgy one.After Zverev lost in doubles on Friday night with Matteo Berrettini, McEnroe said that Zverev told him that would be the last match Team World was going to win. McEnroe later acknowledged that Zverev was teasing, but McEnroe said he was eager for “bulletin-board material.”After McEnroe informed his team of the comment on Friday, the response was predictably bellicose and Opelka responded with: “He also said he’s innocent.” That was an apparent reference to published allegations of domestic violence from Zverev’s former girlfriend, Olya Sharypova.Alexander Zverev was on court for the decisive point in the Laver Cup for the third straight iteration of the competition. Adam Glanzman/Getty Images For Laver CupSharypova has not filed criminal charges against Zverev over the incidents, which she told the publication Slate occurred in 2019. Zverev has repeatedly denied abusing Sharypova and has continued to play on the ATP Tour, winning the Olympic gold medal in singles in Tokyo and reaching the semifinals of the U.S. Open earlier this month before competing in the Laver Cup.On Sunday night, Laver Cup organizers announced before Team World’s final news conference that the team would field only “tennis-related questions.” In a separate interview, Opelka later declined to speak about Zverev.The ATP Tour announced earlier this year that it would review its approach to handling players who are accused of domestic abuse or sexual misconduct. It currently has no formal policy.Zverev turned out to be correct, though, that the Friday’s doubles win would be Team World’s last victory in Boston. His victory on Sunday with the hard-hitting Rublev marked the third straight time that Zverev has won the decisive point in the Laver Cup.He looked very much like Team Europe’s new leader in Boston on the court and in the post-match interviews. Though Federer made the trip to Boston, he did so only as a spectator and cheerleader, navigating the TD Garden on crutches after knee surgery in August.At age 40, it is unclear when or if he will return to the tour, but what is clear is that this European team was still unstoppable without him or the other members of the Big Three: Nadal and Djokovic.Carrying the Laver Cup forward without that superstar power will be a much bigger challenge.“I’m definitely not worried about the event’s future,” Godsick said. “Tennis always produces new superstars. It always has, and it always will. There are new people holding up Grand Slam trophies. You see it coming now. If anything, I think we were lucky to be able to launch it in the era of such incredible tennis players.” More

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      Roger Federer’s Deep Passion for the Laver Cup

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      He helped create it in 2017 and plans to stay involved after he retires.Roger Federer has always been a student of tennis. While still a teenager more than 20 years ago, Federer was interested in who the sport’s great historical figures were, what they won and how they styled their strokes.Federer latched on to Rod Laver of Australia, who is the only tennis player to win the Grand Slam — Wimbledon and the Australian, French and United States championships — twice, in 1962 and 1969. Federer’s own play is reminiscent of Laver’s with graceful groundstrokes followed by explosive but perfectly timed forays to the net.It was with a nod to Laver that in 2017 Federer helped create the Laver Cup, an exhibition team competition featuring six top male players from Europe facing off against six from the rest of the world. The event has been held in Prague, Chicago and Geneva. After a year’s hiatus because of the pandemic, it will be held Friday to Sunday at TD Garden in Boston.“In our sport, we don’t have enough of a platform for former great players, legends of the game,” said Federer by telephone from his home in Switzerland, where is rehabilitating from surgery on his right knee that forced him to miss the U.S. Open. “If you look at golf, they have a wonderful way of going about it. Former players are always around, always welcome and always advising the younger ones. Having an event like the Laver Cup is a way to shine a light on the legends like Rod Laver and many, many others who paved the way for us.”Federer, together with his longtime agent Tony Godsick, has done his part to link some of the best in the game, past and present, through the Laver Cup. His two captains are Bjorn Borg, winner of five straight Wimbledons and six French Open titles, and John McEnroe, who won the U.S. Open four times, and three Wimbledon championships. The vice captains are McEnroe’s younger brother Patrick, an Australian Open semifinalist in 1991, and Borg’s Swedish compatriot and former world No. 4 Thomas Enqvist.Borg’s European team has six players ranked in the top 10. They are No. 2 Daniil Medvedev, who won the U.S. Open this month, defeating Novak Djokovic; No. 3 Stefanos Tsitsipas; No. 4 Alexander Zverev; No. 5 Andrey Rublev; No. 7 Matteo Berrettini; and No. 10 Casper Ruud.McEnroe’s Team World has No. 11 Felix Auger-Aliassime, No. 12 Denis Shapovalov, No. 15 Diego Schwartzman, No. 19 Reilly Opelka, No. 22 John Isner and No. 95 Nick Kyrgios. All of them take turns competing in 12 singles and doubles matches in day and evening sessions throughout the weekend.Opelka is playing the Laver Cup for the first time. He has wanted to play for a long time.“The Laver Cup is the Laver Cup,” said Opelka, who reached the round of 16 at the U.S. Open. “They’ve capitalized on everything. They’ve built the dream event. Who wouldn’t want to be there? Anything that Rod Laver has his name on, Federer has his name on, it’s a huge honor.”Federer with Rod Laver at the 2018 Laver Cup.Stacy Revere/Getty Images While it appears on paper that Team Europe, with the more highly ranked competitors, has an advantage, the format of the event is a great equalizer. There are singles and doubles matches, and point totals are cumulative with one point awarded for each win on the first day, two points on the second and three points on the third. Players on the winning team, the first to 13 points, each receive $250,000 in addition to appearance fees that are based on a player’s ranking.In 2017, Federer beat Kyrgios 11-9 in a match tiebreaker to seal the win for Team Europe. Then two years ago, the European team won for the third straight year when the world team led going into the last two matches, but then Federer beat Isner 6-4, 7-6 (3) and Zverev knocked off Milos Raonic in the final match 6-4, 3-6, 10-4. At Laver Cup, a super tiebreaker is played in lieu of a third set.This year, Federer is unable to play. Also absent are Rafael Nadal and Dominic Thiem, both of whom are injured. Djokovic, who represented Europe in 2018, declined to participate.“Obviously we’re missing the top three guys, but our team is one of the strongest I think we’ve ever had,” said Zverev, who, along with Isner and Kyrgios, are four-time Laver Cup competitors. “We have all the young gun generation guys, which is great to see. Everybody is very motivated. It’s going to be a fun, entertaining week for all of us.”In a business sense, it is hard to argue with having so many top players facing off in multiple matches over three days.“We knew from the beginning that this event would be a success,” Godsick said. “The secret sauce is the format. It just works because so many matches come down to the wire, or what we call the Laver Breaker. It makes it more interesting for the players. There’s more peer pressure when you’re playing against your biggest rivals while your other rivals are cheering you on.”Federer, left, and Nadal playing doubles against Sock and Sam Querrey at the 2017 Laver Cup.Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesFederer has been intrinsically involved with Laver Cup from its inception. He fretted in Prague the first year when he was not sure that fans would show up for the first match at 11 a.m. (the arena ended up being packed). He worried when Nadal hurt himself and pulled out on the last day in Geneva in 2019 and then had to deal with an irate John McEnroe, who wanted to make his own last-minute player substitutions. But mostly he had fun when he got to play doubles with Nadal for the only time in their careers.“Of course, the doubles with Rafa was truly special because there was so much hype that came before it,” Federer said of the match in Prague in 2017. They beat the Americans Jack Sock and Sam Querrey 6-4, 1-6, 10-5.For Federer, the real allure of the Laver Cup is the camaraderie among players, who usually stare at each other across the net rather than sit side by side on comfortable benches. Even as his playing days wind down, Federer is sure he will continue to support the event.“I definitely see myself being involved,” he said. “I’d love to be the captain one day. I think it’s a beautiful way of getting the rivals to coexist for a week together. It really is truly fun and cool to share the locker room with these guys who you usually share it with, but don’t talk tactics and see how everybody prepares and actually support one another. Normally you don’t cheer against each other, but you don’t really mind if they win or lose. This time it’s very different.”And as for having the game’s past champions, including the 83-year-old Laver, attend each year, that is what Federer wants.“This event is a get-together,” Federer said. “That’s what I wanted it to be. It’s the wisdom, the stories, having legends tell stories to the younger generation. I’m happy being on those teams, listening to Bjorn, seeing John, seeing Rocket [Laver] and watching the youngsters learn from the elders. It’s passing down the wisdom.” More

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      The Special Role of Laver Cup Captains

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      John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg have filled the job since the tournament began, and it’s more than ceremonial.In the first three Laver Cups, the biggest names were the most famous players in tennis: Roger Federer (who helped create the tournament) played each year, Rafael Nadal played twice and Novak Djokovic played once.All are absent this year at the event in Boston, so while six Top 10 players are on board, the biggest names will be the most famous players in tennis circa 1980: the Team World captain, John McEnroe, and the Team Europe captain, Bjorn Borg, both returning for their fourth time.The Laver Cup brings a team sport format to tennis, and the captains have a role unlike almost any other in tennis.Captains recruit and select a team, build team spirit during practices, pick lineups according to the event’s quirky rules and provide in-match coaching.“There’s a lot to consider and a lot of tactics when making out the lineups, so in that sense the captain’s role is pretty important,” said Thomas Enqvist, vice captain of Team Europe.McEnroe takes his job seriously, but he downplays its importance. “It’s not the toughest job in the world,” he said with a laugh. “I show up at some cocktail parties and pick up balls at practiceThere is more to the job than that. Captains must persuade the top-ranked players, who are invited to the tournament based on their rankings, to participate. They also choose three lower-ranked players, called captain’s picks.“Before the first year, I had to call the players and explain the tournament,” Borg said, although having Federer’s backing made his job easier. For the captain’s picks, he added, “I’m watching so much tennis all year to see who fits the team, who may be in the best shape.”Federer, left, of Team Europe, with Borg, the team captain, at the 2018 Laver Cup.Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesTeam Europe has had a huge edge in singles with its top players, so in past years McEnroe has built his roster around winning the doubles matches, relying heavily on Jack Sock, who is 7-2 in Laver Cup doubles.But without the big three playing for Team Europe, Patrick McEnroe, a vice captain and brother of John McEnroe, said, “we’re not as big an underdog in the singles as we were.”For instance, Denis Shapovalov has a career record of 10-8 against the six Team Europe players. So John McEnroe is aiming for more singles wins, choosing players like Reilly Opelka, who is approaching the Top 20, over Sock, who is an alternate for 2021.Opelka fits the model of McEnroe’s other captain’s picks, John Isner and Nick Kyrgios. “I’m bringing guys in to try and take the racket out of their opponent’s hands,” McEnroe said, referring to players with powerful serves.The week of practice leading up to the tournament serves several purposes for the teams’ leaders. “You need to figure out the doubles partners,” Enqvist said, “so you talk to the guys and try a couple of combinations. It’s important to have good chemistry.”When asked if he could have played doubles alongside Jimmy Connors had the Laver Cup existed in 1980, John McEnroe shrugged. “That would have been iffy,” he said. “I would like to think so, but one year we played Davis Cup together and didn’t talk the whole time.”Patrick McEnroe was amused by the notion. “It would definitely have been worth the price of admission,” he said, “but you’d have to be one strong captain to pull that off.”Reilly Opelka, an American player, in action at the United States Open this month. He will play for Team World at the Laver Cup.Geoff Burke/USA Today Sports, via ReutersThat chemistry goes beyond just doubles partners, Borg said.“We have at least two dinners together to build team spirit,” he said. As for potential conflicts arising from Alexander Zverev’s chastising of Stefanos Tsitsipas for bathroom breaks that he said were too long, Borg said he would be hands off and leave it to his players to work through it.Practical coaching is minimal, John McEnroe said: “The players’ coaches get very protective and call me all the time asking what I am going to do.”Still, he does try, because helping a player make even a slight improvement can make a difference. “I like to help players maximize their potential, and this is one way where they can get feedback from me,” he said. “And it’s not costing them anything.”Both captains submit lineup cards blindly (not knowing who the opponent will be) for the first day, then each gets a turn seeing the other’s lineup first for the next two days. Captains must also weigh the scoring rules: Matches are worth one point the first day, two on the next day and three on the final day.“You want to start strong on Friday, but you might want to save stronger players for Saturday because those are two-point matches,” Enqvist said.Unlike ATP Tour matches, the captains (and the team) are right there on the sideline. “I’m providing a combination of team building, tactics and psychological boosts,” John McEnroe said, though tactics take a back seat. “It’s hard to figure out something that drastic. It’s often basic reminders, but it’s not like I have to tell John Isner, ‘Serve big.’”Mostly it is an enhanced cheerleader’s role. “I give positive vibes,” Borg said.“These players are the best in the world and have played the other guys, so they know what to do and what not to do,” he said. “But if they’re not playing well, I can push them in a positive way.”With the big three replaced by newcomers like Caspar Ruud and Matteo Berrettini, Borg said, “I may be more hands-on and say a few more things this year.”McEnroe said his and Borg’s statures and personas did have an impact.“Even for Roger or Rafa, looking over and seeing Bjorn, they’ll say, ‘I want to make sure I do my thing,’ because Bjorn has an aura around him,” McEnroe said. “I hopefully bring an energy to our side.”Team Europe may be the favorite, but McEnroe has a solution: “I was suggesting that when I grew up, Russia wasn’t considered part of Europe, so we should get [Daniil] Medvedev and [Andrey] Rublev and that would level the playing field.” Medvedev won the United States Open on Sept. 12.In reality, Russia is in Europe and Asia, but the players hail from the European part.“John,” Borg said with a chuckle, “would want all the players.” More

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      Casper Ruud Is Norway’s Answer to His Father

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      His dad, Christian, was once the country’s top player. Now it’s his son.In October 1995, Christian Ruud became the highest-ranked Norwegian tennis player ever. He was No. 39 in the world, reached the round of 16 at the 1997 Australian Open and represented his country at the Olympics three times.It took about 26 years, but in February 2020 Ruud’s ranking was eclipsed — by his son, Casper, 22, who has obliterated his father’s accomplishments, winning four ATP clay-court tournaments this year, and reached a career-high No. 10 ranking.The former No. 1 junior player, Casper Ruud lost in the second round of the United States Open to Botic van de Zandschulp, an eventual quarterfinalist. But, his stellar season prompted Bjorn Borg to include him on his eight-man European team in the Laver Cup. His father is his coach.The following conversation has been edited and condensed.Do you remember the first time you beat your father?Yes, I do. I was 14 or 15, but my dad thinks I was 16. We had spent a year playing tournaments all over Europe, so we stayed home the next year to work on my physique and developing my character on court. On the weekends, we would try to play a little bit against each other.After a couple of tries, I beat him 6-2. He wasn’t too pleased because he didn’t play well. He gave it away with a lot of mistakes.Christian Ruud, right, congratulating Casper Ruud after he won a match in the ATP Cup group stage in Australia in January 2020.Paul Kane/Getty ImagesYou’ve had most of your success on clay courts, but the Laver Cup is indoors on a hard court. How will you adapt?My kind of game suits the clay better. The way I hit the ball is with a pretty good amount of topspin. It’s a heavy ball that bounces up from the clay courts. But I shouldn’t forget that I grew up half the year playing indoors on a hard court because Norway is a cold country.Your Laver Cup teammates will be among the best in the world. If you could take one stroke from Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alexander Zverev, Andrey Rublev and Matteo Berrettini, what would it be?From Medvedev, I would love to have his return of serve. With Zverev, the backhand is pretty phenomenal. I think Tsitsipas has got great hand skills on the net and great volleys.It’s tough with Rublev and Berrettini because they have deadly forehands, but I’m going with Rublev’s forehand and Berrettini’s wicked slice on the backhand side. Then I have it covered.No, I’m going to go for Berrettini’s serve. Then I can leave the slice for myself.What is your hometown, Snaroya, best known for other than you?It’s by the sea and very nice and calm. The Oslo airport used to be a kilometer away from where I grew up. They moved it outside Oslo the year I was born, but they kept the runway there as a historic site. When it comes to sport, all the kids play soccer in the summer and hockey in the winter. And they go boating in the summer. It’s also known for tennis because my dad played.If you could have dinner with one famous person, who would it be?I would say the Canadian singer the Weeknd. He’s an artist I’ve listened to a lot and really like. He’s a star around the world now, but when I started listening to him he was more anonymous, a bit darker than he is now. I would be pretty star-struck if I were at that dinner, but it would be cool to meet him one day.Did you set any goals for this year?It’s tough to set goals by numbers. At the beginning of the season, I said to myself that if I could end the year in the Top 20 it would be a great year. Now, I’m in the Top 10.But it’s more important to end the year Top 10, not just get into it for a week and then drop out. The result at the end of the year is the really big achievement. More

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      Forest Hills Stadium Hosts Davis Cup Tie for First Time Since 1959

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      A Davis Cup tie between South Africa and Venezuela is being held in front of a small group of fans at the West Side Tennis Club — the first Davis Cup action there since 1959.A week has passed since the United States Open electrified the tennis world with its enchanting unpredictability and rejuvenated fan base. But unknown to many, top flight tennis lingered in New York City as the Davis Cup made a quiet and unusual return to the West Side Tennis Club.Fewer than 200 lucky fans — all members of the venerable club — dotted the nearly century-old, 14,000-seat Forest Hills Stadium in Queens on Saturday to witness the first Davis Cup tie at the venue since 1959.But the U.S. team was nowhere to be found.Instead, South Africa hosted Venezuela — two teams in search of a home. They found it, tucked into the leafy Forest Hills neighborhood, once the home of the U.S. championships (later the U.S. Open), until the event moved three miles up the Grand Central Parkway to Flushing in 1978.Ten days earlier, Lloyd Harris was there, playing in front of 20,000 fans at the U.S. Open. Saturday was entirely different. Yes, it had some of the pomp and circumstance of the Davis Cup — there was an opening ceremony with player introductions, flags and the national anthems of both countries, and team uniforms.But the raucous and rowdy atmosphere sometimes associated with many Davis Cup ties, especially in South America, was decidedly absent, at least in the opening match.Harris, who had a deep run at this year’s U.S. Open, stayed in town for the Davis Cup. He dispatched Perez fairly easily. “It’s a very unique situation, playing a tie between South Africa and Venezuela in New York,” Harris said. “But it’s pretty cool. It worked out well for me since I’ve been here the whole time. It was not too hard to travel four blocks.”If the idea of two countries from different continents playing a Davis Cup tie in the ancestral home of American tennis seemed like a mismatch, so too was Harris’s first on-court encounter. He had no trouble dispatching Brandon Perez, Venezuela’s No. 2 player, 6-0, 6-0, in the first match of the two-day event (play resumes Sunday).Perez is ranked 1,596th in the world and plays for the University of Nebraska. He knew weeks ago he would face Harris in the Davis Cup. Like many tennis fans, he watched Harris blaze through the summer season, scoring huge wins in a run that included beating Rafael Nadal in Washington before reaching the final eight in Flushing.Then, after Harris lost to the semifinalist Alexander Zverev, he moved from an Intercontinental Hotel on the east side of Manhattan — one of the main U.S. Open player hotels — to one on the West side, where the South African team was headquartered. He spent the last 10 days recuperating, practicing and sightseeing with his girlfriend. They rented bikes and went over the Brooklyn Bridge and pedaled all around downtown and up to Central Park.Harris, who is from Cape Town, has been in New York for a month — long enough to feel like a local.“I’ve learned you’ve got to move fast and drink a lot of coffee,” he said, “and watch out for the cyclists rushing past you at 200 kilometers an hour. I nearly got run over by cyclists about 10 times already.”The event had much of the pomp and circumstance of a typical Davis Cup tie, but because of the costs associated with hosting fans, the matches were played in front of around 200 members of the country club. Ricardo Rodriguez of Venezuela lost in the second match on Saturday. He and his wife, Melanie Maulini, toured the grounds at Forest Hills Stadium before his match.Concessions were open at the former home of the U.S. Tennis Championships — later renamed the U.S. Open — despite the crowd being so thin.Under normal conditions, Harris might have returned home to South Africa immediately after the U.S. Open. But South Africa has a high rate of coronavirus infections, making travel restrictions challenging for visitors and residents traveling back and forth. (Another tie was also held on neutral U.S. soil Friday and Saturday as New Zealand played South Korea at the Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I.).Venezuela, meanwhile, has not been allowed to host Davis Cup matches since 2016 when the International Tennis Federation declared it unsafe for travel because of the political and economic situation.“I’m still waiting for the opportunity to play at home in front of all my friends and family,” Perez said. “Until then, I’ve got my parents here and my girlfriend.”In the second singles match on Saturday, Philip Henning of South Africa beat Venezuela’s Ricardo Rodriguez, 6-4, 6-4, as the small audience came to life on a sunny, breezy day that made at least one supporter from South Africa feel right at home.“You’ve served up a perfect South African day,” said Gavin Crookes, the president of Tennis South Africa.Philip Henning celebrated with the rest of the South African contingent after his win over Rodriguez gave the country a clean sweep of the day’s matches.Venezuela was set to be the nominal host, but it allowed South Africa to take over the role, and bringing the West Side Tennis Club into play. Jason Weir-Smith, a former college and professional player from Johannesburg, is the tennis director at the club. Tennis South Africa reached out to him, and the club was eager to host.“It was 60 years ago that the club last held a Davis Cup event,” Weir-Smith said. “It was important for us to get back on the map.”It was also the first Davis Cup match anywhere in New York since 1981, when the U.S., with John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors, took on Ivan Lendl and Czechoslovakia in Flushing.Tickets for this event were not available to the public because, according to Weir-Smith, the cost for permits, insurance and staff was prohibitive for Tennis South Africa, which would have been responsible for the costs as the host nation. Instead, only 200 club members were allowed into the venue, which is more than is sometimes on hand for challenger events and college matches.The tie is being held on a blue hard court that was refurbished in July specifically for the Davis Cup tie.While the Davis Cup tie was being held at Forest Hills Stadium, the rest of the West Side Tennis Club’s courts were dotted with members getting in matches. Monika Jain, the president of the West Side club, was one of the spectators on hand Saturday. She watched from metal benches after playing a round of tennis on one of the club’s many grass, clay and hard courts.“It’s very exciting for us to be able to have this event here,” Jain said. “With our proximity to the U.S. Open, we think we can do more of this in the future.”The West Side Tennis Club, with its iconic Tudor clubhouse, was host to the U.S. championships from 1915 to 1977 and saw some of the sport’s greatest players, including Bill Tilden, Arthur Ashe, Jimmy Connors, Althea Gibson, Billie Jean King and Chris Evert win titles.It represents a different era in professional tennis, when the game was dominated by international elites. This weekend, though, it served as a temporary landing spot for some of tennis’s temporary homeless.“We would love to play in front of our people, but unfortunately we haven’t had that chance the last several years,” Rodriguez said. “On the other hand, playing at such a historic venue is very special for me. You feel the history and the great moments that happened here. To be a little part of the new history makes me proud.” More