LAVER CUP

September 24, 2023

Bjorn Borg

Thomas Enqvist

Andrey Rublev

Casper Ruud

Hubert Hurkacz

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina

Arthur Fils

Gael Monfils

Team Europe

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Thanks, everybody, for joining us and for your time.

Bjorn, maybe we'll start with you. Things didn't fall your way this week, but I'm sure lots of positives to take out of this week as you reflect and then look ahead to Berlin. Maybe your thoughts on that.

CAPTAIN BJORN BORG: Well, like I said before, I mean, it's been a good week for us, practicing and getting together, the team spirit, everything. I mean, we gave 100%.

Team World played unbelievable tennis. Every single match they played really good. Of course we are all very disappointed, because we never expect to lose this score this much. What can you say? They played good tennis.

Looking to Berlin next year, that's next year. I mean, we're talking about this year here right now. We are disappointed, of course.

But they played really good tennis. What can I say?

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Bjorn, wanted to ask you, of course as a player you had your losses back in the day, not a lot. How do you advise these guys as you go through a hard couple of days like that to keep their heads up?

CAPTAIN BJORN BORG: Well, the team spirit is very good. I mean, we stick together. We spent a lot of time together. I mean, we talk a lot. I mean, the group talk a lot to each other.

We give advice, what to do, not to do. Next week it's a different tournament for all these guys, but here right now as a team, we wanted to do really well.

But still we are sitting here, all of us, in good spirit, in a way, but we are all disappointed. But they have other things in the future to do, and the goals is to do well the rest of the year.

I mean, it's very difficult to explain, you know, what to do and not to do. They have a tournament next week, all these guys. Unfortunately these things happened during Laver Cup that we lost. I mean, we never expected to lose, what was the score, 13-2? But we did.

I still say they played really good tennis, The World. Congratulations, good play. It's another Laver Cup next year in Berlin, in Europe. It's going to be completely different. It's our home court. We look forward to that.

Q. Bjorn, was losing those matches on the first day kind of putting the pressure on you guys, getting into it with such a big deficit despite the points being lower on the opening day?

CAPTAIN BJORN BORG: No, I think even Friday, you know, it's one point to win. I think everybody played good tennis here. We did. But unfortunately we did not win the key points, and we lose a lot of important points in the matches.

Could it have gone the other round, maybe it would be a different score. I'm happy with my team. I mean, I'm happy with these guys. They took a lot of responsibility to do what they have to do. They gave 100%, all these guys. It's no complaints in that kind of way.

Q. It's obviously a team in transition. Are there positives you can take out of this week in terms of building for the future? With a reflection of what you said in London last year, you said, Well, I will give this one more year, are you up for being captain of Europe next year?

CAPTAIN BJORN BORG: The positive things with this team that we have good spirit. Always Team Europe we are a very close team. We have a lot of fun together on the court and off the court. Yes, and I think that's very important for a team (smiling).

I mean, even sitting here, we're all very disappointed, but we had a great week together. Unfortunately we lost. But I think that's important, and for me as a captain, that's really important to bring the team together and we have fun. Of course, you want to win. Everybody hates to lose.

Regarding, yeah, I'll be in Berlin next year. Yes.

Q. This is for Arthur, Hubert, Alejandro, and Gael. This is your first Laver Cup, can you share a bit about the week and your experience?

ARTHUR FILS: Well, I'm really happy. It was a nice week with the guys. Unfortunately we didn't have the win, but motel was nice and had some great moments. Yeah, it was cool.

HUBERT HURKACZ: Yeah, definitely, yes. Start the match and before like getting together with the guys that usually we play against each other was super cool experience and was really amazing, you know, to support each other.

Yeah, I mean, having Bjorn, Thomas with us here was you know, it was huge, huge honor, huge possibility for us as well, you know, to share some great moments. We had great team spirit, and we are competing as good as we can.

Yeah, so it was really, really great opportunity to learn a lot.

ALEJANDRO DAVIDOVICH FOKINA: I say everything the same. (Laughter.)

GAEL MONFILS: Retweet. Copy/paste. (Laughter.)

They say pretty much everything. You know, it was just, for me, a different event that, you know, I haven't played for this long time. It was quite cool.

Very different that whatever expected in a way, fatigue, because Davis Cup, I was saying to Thomas actually, Davis Cup is very tiring, but, you know, this week it was the same. I think we had a tough practice and long days also, because it's more matches. It was different experience and definitely a tiring one.

I was amazed with the fitness of those guys, because I'm quite old and I can see that honestly the second session was a little bit tougher, you know, in the body.

I mean, see Frances talking trash and then back up on the court, this, physically a beast. Hubi, when he say he want to play singles and doubles back to back, crazy good.

All the time I was, like, talking, say, Oh, maybe you go to the lockers.

I say, Oh, I'm okay. I'm fine. And the kid is running everywhere.

I mean, it's a great event, but, you know, you need to be ready physically. I felt like those two teams, those youngsters, they were great. It was cool to see.

Q. Hubert, Andrey, it was a really exciting match today. Didn't go your way, but it was really fun to watch. Can you talk a bit about the match and any regrets, any regretful points that you had?

HUBERT HURKACZ: I mean, it was fun to play with Andrey. He was playing some really amazing tennis today. Just hitting the ball so hard, and was making it easier at the net.

I think we both played good. We had all our service games. We had some opportunities, some breakpoints that didn't go our way.

I mean, it was just really close, really close match, and, you know, they came up with some, you know, good shots at unfortunate moments for us.

ANDREY RUBLEV: Yeah, I think we played really, really great doubles with Hubi. Just was about little details that just didn't went our way. That's it. Because we had two breakpoints in the first set, and then we had couple of shots that we did everything right and we all miss a little bit or they played really well.

Then twice tiebreak we were with a mini break up, and we couldn't manage it. Yeah, was just about little details, but I think overall we played really good doubles today.

Q. Thomas, you have been involved with the Laver Cup since 2017. You have experienced all the successes and the lows and the highs. Could you talk a bit about Berlin next year as well from your perspective on what it will take to get the Cup back in your hands, the team's hands?

THOMAS ENQVIST: Yes. Just quickly I want to refer to what Bjorn said, as well, I think is very true. Both Bjorn and I are very, very proud of this group. I think really from the beginning they came together and showed the really true Laver Cup spirit, which is about to come together even if they are competitor usually on daily basis on the tour. Right away they find the right Laver Cup spirit, this group. It was amazing.

They worked hard on practice. They were available to everything we asked them to do. On the court, even when things didn't go our way, they kept up the energy all the way. Even this morning we say that we knew that we need to win all the matches, not one single drop of energy, this group.

I'm actually very proud of the group. This is sport. Sometimes you need to admit that the opponent was a little bit better, and they were. So we have to congratulate, like Bjorn said, Team World this time. Looking forward obviously to Berlin.

CAPTAIN BJORN BORG: One thing. We will definitely bring back the Cup. It's going to stay in Europe next year.

ANDREY RUBLEV: Every year. Obviously one of the years it's gonna happen. (Laughter.)

Q. Casper, the demands of the tour are really difficult for all of you, and I wonder what you would do to improve the Laver Cup, like maybe the scheduling of it? Having gone through it, what would you like to see done going forward?

CASPER RUUD: Tough question. I think it is a great format and I played three times. Two of the times that I have played was maybe in a way a little bit unfortunate with only one doubles deciding on Sunday. The crowd didn't get to see a singles after or whatever, so that's not in my hands to decide what the format looks like.

But last year in London was great in many ways because you had so many great players, great lineup, and it came down to almost the last match. When I watched on TV the first series, it was so exciting, because Roger played a couple of times the final match of the Sunday and clutched it for Team Europe.

It's been a couple of years without playing that last singles match, but I don't know. It's a great initiative. Me, as a golf fan, watching Ryder Cup all my life in my childhood, it's great for tennis to have this event.

We're going to be eager. I mean, the only good thing for us this weekend was that we scored at least one more point than the World did when we crushed them. (Laughter.) So two points is much better than one. (Smiling.)

It's been a really fun weekend being with all the boys, and I hope I can be back on the team next year for Berlin and that we can fight well.