|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
LAVER CUPSeptember 23, 2017John McEnroeBjorn BorgPrague, Czech Republic LAVER CUP Prague, Czech Republic 23 September, 2017 Europe - 3 The World - 1 DAY TWO LINEUP REVEAL TODD WOODBRIDGE: Good morning, everybody. Thanks for joining us for our reveal of the matches for Day 2. I think you can all agree that yesterday was a hugely successful opening day for the Laver Cup. Matches were incredible, tight, and of course Team Europe with the 3-1 lead have the advantage coming into Day 2. But for Team World, how crucial it was to win that doubles at the end of the day's play. We are all looking forward to a terrific Day 2, and I'm going to explain the lineup to you now and remind you that on Day 2, all match victories are worth 2 points. On Thursday, our two captains submitted their Day 1 lineups blind at the same time. Today it's a whole new ball game. It changes. One team will have access to their opponent's lineup the night before submitting their own selections. Under the Laver Cup rules, the home team was given the choice of whether they want to submit second on Saturday or Sunday. As the home captain, Björn Borg for Team Europe has elected to submit first on Sunday, which gives Team World and John McEnroe a chance to look at the matchups for Day 3. That's the final day of the Laver Cup, and of course that means that matches on Day 3 are worth 3 points. So for today's play, last night Team World submitted their lineups for Matches 5 through 8, which we can now reveal. So for Match 5, John, you've gone with your No. 1 player, Sam Querrey. Jack Sock will be up in Match 6, Nick Kyrgios for Match 7, and it's double duty for both of your American stars, Sam Querrey and Jack Sock in Match 8. Can you give us your thoughts on how you have put that lineup together. CAPTAIN JOHN McENROE: Well, yeah, Sam hadn't played, and he's been playing great, best tennis of his life. So we want to try to put him up first. He'd be the freshest. This court is not playing very fast, so we wanted to get Jack out there in singles. Everybody's got to play one singles. And Nick, you know, we figured a lot of energy at 7, he'd be up on top, and the crowd, he feeds off that, and so that was the plan with the singles. As far as the doubles, Jack played some great doubles, has had some great results, and he has had a history with two of the three players. So just to sort of preserve some players for Sunday and use our best doubles player again. That was the plan. TODD WOODBRIDGE: Okay. We will see how that unfolds. As Björn has had that opportunity to put his lineup together, we will reveal these matches one by one. For Match 5, could you please reveal who will be playing Sam Querrey. CAPTAIN BJÖRN BORG: Roger Federer will play Sam Querrey. CAPTAIN JOHN McENROE: Who? (Laughter.) TODD WOODBRIDGE: So the World No. 2 will open our session, our 5 match, against Sam Querrey. For Match 6, Jack Sock will take on? CAPTAIN BJÖRN BORG: Rafa Nadal. TODD WOODBRIDGE: So World No. 1 and 2 in the afternoon session today. Match No. 7? CAPTAIN BJÖRN BORG: Will be Tomas Berdych. TODD WOODBRIDGE: The hometown hero. And finally, to take on Sam Querrey and Jack Sock in Match 8, the doubles? CAPTAIN BJÖRN BORG: We have Rafael and Federer. TODD WOODBRIDGE: Ah, they have got them together. Look forward to that. Can you work through those selections for us, Björn, and how you've come about putting them in that order? CAPTAIN BJÖRN BORG: Like John said, everybody has to play one single Friday and Saturday, and we had a little bit meeting with the players, and like Roger is fresh, he wanted to play early. And Rafa played last night doubles so he is ready to play. Later tonight they are both going to play doubles, a very important doubles, because the doubles could be very important. So they wanted to play during the day. Didn't really matter who they were playing, but they wanted to get some rest before the doubles tonight. TODD WOODBRIDGE: John, last night you talked about how important it was to get that point, get back to 3 points to 1. You're gonna win the first match today and make it all level? How do you like that matchup for Sam Querrey against Roger? CAPTAIN JOHN McENROE: Well, listen, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, along with the person who this event is named after, are the greatest players that ever played the game, so needless to say, we have our hands full. But Sam is the type of player -- we have a couple of players that can take the racquet out of pretty much anyone's hand when they're hot. That matchup is obviously -- anyone playing Roger Federer has a difficult matchup, but I think Sam has got a great chance. He's been playing very aggressively with a lot of confidence, so cautiously optimistic. TODD WOODBRIDGE: Björn, just talk to us, if you can, briefly, about the doubles. There has been a lot of expectation about getting Roger and Rafa on the court together. That could really cement the opportunity to win the Laver Cup on Day 3 for you if they could get through that match and Match 8. CAPTAIN BJÖRN BORG: I think all the doubles teams competing these three days are great teams, but to get Rafa and Roger together in the doubles, they have never played together, they are both great doubles players, and for us and the people to see them play tonight is just going to be something special. TODD WOODBRIDGE: Final comment before Day 2 gets underway, John? CAPTAIN JOHN McENROE: Well, I mean, the final comment from me would be that the first day just really lived up to expectations. All matches were exceptionally close. I would humbly ask the players to play a little bit less long, not as many tiebreakers, unless our team wins more of them (smiling). TODD WOODBRIDGE: Win more of the big points (smiling)? Everybody, that concludes the draw ceremony for Day 2 of the Laver Cup. We are looking forward to another sensational day of play. Thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|