The Big Three certainly lost one of their mainstays on Friday after Roger Federer announced his retirement following his doubles match at the Laver Cup, but Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are still there. And the Serb made sure to make his presence felt.
Djokovic easily beat American Frances Tiafoe 6-1, 6-3 in the singles final scheduled for Saturday, giving the European team a 6-4 lead over the international team.
The Laver Cup format awards two points for a singles win, and the score was tied at 4-4 before the Serb and Tiafoe took to the court for their clash.
The ‘Joker’, who is 35 years old, does not seem to be tired yet at this stage of a grueling season on the ATP circuit. The reason is very simple: he has not yet been vaccinated against COVID-19.
As a result, he was kicked out of two of the four major tournaments this season – the Australian Open in January and the US Open, which ended earlier this month. And that’s not to mention the various tournaments on North American soil where he had to be absent for the same reasons, including the National Bank Open in August.
Therefore, Djokovic literally silenced his opponent, Tiafoe, who was a semi-finalist at the last United States Open. That forced rest even allowed the Serb, now seventh in the world, to confirm at the dawn of the team competition that he was set to take part in most indoor tournaments by the end of this campaign.
An energized Djokovic will return to court in black with Italy’s Matteo Berrettini at the end of the day at London’s O2 Arena to face American Jack Sock and Australian Alex de Minaur. They will then try to widen the gap in favor of the European team.
Need we remember, meanwhile, that the international team has never won this competition created in 2017?
It started rather badly for the international team in the morning after Félix Auger-Aliassime lost 7-6 (11), 4-6 and 10-7 to Berrettini in the first singles match of the day.
Auger-Aliassime, ranked 13th in the world, suffered her third loss in four career matches on the ATP circuit against Berrettini, ranked 15th in the world.
This also gave a 4-2 lead for the European team over the international team.
American Taylor Fritz, however, made sure both teams were back in the top four, defeating Great Britain’s Cameron Norrie 6-1, 4-6, 10-8 in the second singles match of the day.
Norrie ran onto the court painted black after Spain’s Rafael Nadal retired. ‘Rafa’ explained that he had to leave the competition on Saturday to join his partner, who is due to give birth to their first child soon.
This team competition was created by Roger Federer’s management company. The 41-year-old Swiss made his swan song on Friday night in doubles with his eternal rival, Nadal. The holder of 20 career Grand Slam titles and Nadal lost 4-6, 7-6(2), 11-9 to Shock and Tiafoe.
