Wimbledon 2021 finalist Matteo Berrettini and American tennis star Tommy Paul have been announced as alternates at this year’s Laver Cup. Berrettini, 26, will be a substitute for Team Europe. Berrettini made his Laver Cup debut last year, when he helped Team Europe defeat Team World in Boston.
On the other hand, Paul, 25, who will be an alternate for the World Team, has not previously participated in the Laver Cup. In the event that a Team Europe or Team World player withdraws or is forced to leave due to injury, Berrettini and Paul would come on as substitutes.
In an interview with the Swiss newspaper Blick, Roger Federer’s physical trainer Pierre Paganini expressed concern about the Swiss’ participation in the Laver Cup. “He will probably decide at the last moment. He is trained to have all the information possible about whether it is a good idea or not,” Paganini said.
On Thursday, Federer, a 20-time Grand Slam champion, announced that the Laver Cup would be his last tournament. Berrettini, who grew up watching and idolizing Federer, would certainly love to see the Swiss walk away with one last win.
Since 2017, there have been four editions of the Laver Cup. Until now, Team Europe has never lost against Team World.
Ljubicic comments on King Roger
Roger Federer’s coach Ivan Ljubicic, speaking on the latest episode of The Tennis Podcast, touched upon his pupil’s improvement against Nadal and the reasons behind it.
“I think obviously that match in Australia changed his way of experiencing Rafa, I believe. I think after that match he felt more and more confident that he has it on his racket, which wasn’t the case against Rafa fighting for many times before that,” he expressed, adding, “And so, I think after that match he kind of believed more and he played, you know, just tactically also a bit different.
I mean, personally I know I’m a perfectionist but I’m very sorry for that semifinal at Roland Garros they played each other. It was so windy that the match wasn’t a real match, you know what I mean. So I would have, I would have wanted to see him playing Rafa on the equal terms.
Not on equal terms, of course it was equal terms, but on the normal conditions,” he said. “I’m not saying that he would have won, but I think it would have been fantastic match. It was already like this, but I really believe that at that stage, he believed that he could really also hurt him also in clay.
But on other surfaces, he definitely felt superior after that Australian Open and I think results obviously are showing it,” he added.
