Federer loses Nadal’s team to say goodbye

For Federer, this duo meant the end of an exciting career with 20 Grand Slam victories, 103 singles titles and, among other things, 310 weeks at the top of the tennis world rankings.

“It was a great day. I’m happy, not sad. I enjoyed tying my shoes again,” Federer said in front of the all-sold-out O2 Arena before he broke down in tears. “I didn’t want to feel lonely there, goodbye to this team feeling better.”

The Swiss thanked all his old rivals for all their years on the Tour. Rafael Nadal couldn’t hold back his tears when he heard Federer’s words. “It was a great ride, I would do it again in a heartbeat,” Federer was overwhelmed with emotion.

Prior to that, Norway’s Casper Ruud had 6:4.5:7.10:7 on Jack Sock and Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas with 6:2.6:1 on Diego Schwartzman (ARG) initially to 2:0 for the host. Andy Murray then narrowly lost his third single of the day against Australian Alex de Minaur 7:5, 3:6, 7:10.

There was an incident during the Tsitsipas match. After the first set, a man ran onto the pitch at the O2 and fanned his arm in protest against the use of private jets in the UK. Security personnel immediately put out the flames and moved the man out of the hall. The match between Tsitsipas and Schwartzman continued without delay.

At the Laver Cup, a European team plays against a select group of tennis players from the rest of the world from Friday to Sunday. This time Europe is spreading for the first and last time with the “Big Three” Federer, Nadal and Djokovic in addition to Murray who is there for the first time. One point is awarded for every win on Friday, two points for every Saturday and three points for every Sunday. The team that reaches 13 points is the winner.