“Every Millennial’s Dream”
The young players have no chance of sharing the same side of the pitch with legendary players and their idols. Stefanos Tsitsipas teamed up with 20-time major winner Roger Federer at the Laver Cup 2019 in Geneva and described the experience as the “dream of all millennials”!
Tsitsipas and Federer played Jack Sock and John Isner and suffered a 5-7, 6-4, 10-8 loss in an hour and 46 minutes to put Team World 8-7 in the lead after the first match of the last day bring .
Instead of Rafael Nadal, who retired with a wrist injury, Tsitsipas stepped in for the first time to play with Roger Federer, doing their best to beat the American pair but just missing out in the crucial match tie-break.
There were two breaks on each side and John stayed focused in the crucial moments, fending off six of the eight chances Roger and Stefanos were offered and controlling the pace in the decisive set.
Tsitsipas and Federer played doubles at the Laver Cup 2019
Federer held his serve in the first game with a service winner, from a pleasant service game by Isner, which equaled the score to 1: 1, before the Americans broke the European team when Federer made a volley error.
Roger and Stefanos immediately recovered from the break when Isner landed a long volley and Federer fired an ace to win the game by a 3-2 lead. John served in the sixth game after two deuces, and we saw five powerful service games after that before Sock served 5-6.
The Americans missed their chances and won after Federer’s volley winner take a break when Team Europe won the first 7: 5 in 45 minutes. Isner makes an incredible reaction on the net in the third game of the second set to earn a break for Team World and Jack fought off a break chance in the next game to confirm the lead and put them in a comfortable position.
With a 5-4 serve for the set, Isner defended two break chances and sealed the set with an ace to send the match into the match tie-breaker. The Americans take a 7-4 lead before Federer returned with two winners to keep his team in touch and to keep the crowd on the edge of their seats.
Jack responded with a service winner before Roger crushed a forehand winner to reduce the deficit to 8-7 and make the whole thing more exciting. Socks Return winner pushed the red squad 9: 7 ahead, and Federer saved the first match point after a volley winner on the net.
Isner landed a massive serve against Tsitsipas on the 18th point to seal the deal and put Team World in the lead for the first time in three days before the remaining three matches.