“Crowd Was Insane”: Nick Kyrgios Recollects His Battle Against Roger Federer

Laver Cup is the brainchild of Roger Federer’s management firm, TEAM8, and pits Team Europe against Team World. As the name suggests, players from across the globe play against players from Europe. Thus, the unique tournament has seen top names battle in the same team and against each other. Nick Kyrgios has been part of the Laver Cup since its inception, and in 2019, played a brilliant match against Roger Federer.

Remembering the eventful match in the presence of the packed Geneva crowd, Nick Kyrgios shared a clip of the match on his Instagram handle. The Australian remembered the crowd as Federer triumphed in one of the grueling rallies of the match.

“The crowd was insane this day,” wrote Kyrgios.

Rafael Nadal helps Roger Federer in Laver Cup 2019

2019 Laver Cup also saw some bonding between ‘Fedal’. Nadal gave some useful tips to Federer to defeat Kyrgios. At one point, Federer was 7-6, 5-4 down in the match against Kyrgios, but after Nadal’s coaching, Federer came back to win the second set and then the match.

“After five shots [in the rally], you are winning more [points] than him. I know it’s difficult because he reads the ball so well… Wait for the right one and then attack because he’s not missing,” Nadal said.

A tense end to Laver Cup

The 2019 Laver Cup was the closest ever. Team Europe had won the last two editions, but in 2019, Team World clearly had an upper hand. Federer’s match against Kyrgios came on the second day when Team Europe was behind. The second day ended with Team Europe leading 7-5.

But the third day started off awfully for Team Europe. They lost the first two matches and thus found themselves 11-7 behind. But Roger Federer had other ideas and first defeated John Isner to cut Team World’s lead to 11-9. Later, Federer, alongside Nadal, inspired Alexander Zverev to defeat Milos Raonic in tough three sets.

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