World professional tennis players Spanish Rafael Nadal and Swiss Roger Federer spoke to the press after playing doubles together at the Laver Cup in Prague for the first time. They defeated Sam Querrey and Jack Sock by 6-4 1-6 10-5.
“First of all it was an unforgettable day. To be together the same part of the court, fighting for a team is something that I think we really enjoyed a lot,” said Nadal.
“Personally for me it was a great moment. We only ever practiced once together, back at the World Tour Finals, I think. So we don’t practice a lot. We will always and forever be rivals as long as we are active,” Federer said.
“It’s been an absolute pleasure sharing the court with Rafa on the same side of the net. Knowing you can trust him in the big moments, seeing his decision making, seeing his thought process was very interesting, and I will take these memories for a lifetime, for sure,” Federer added, tennisworldusa.org reported.
The three-day competition kicked off Friday, pitting a team of the best six European players against the top six from the rest of the world. The tournament is to honor Rod Laver, an 11-time major champion who won two calendar-year Grand Slams.
It included three singles and one doubles match every day. Federer and Nadal were clear about their choice of a possible partner. Federer said he “would love” to play with Nadal, while Nadal said, “it would be amazing” to join Federer.
Nadal is currently ranked World No. 1 in men’s singles. Known as “The King of Clay”, he is widely regarded as the greatest clay-court player in history. Federer is currently ranked world No. 2 in men’s singles tennis by the Association of Tennis Professionals.
Add new comment
Read our comment policy before posting your viewpoints