Casper Ruud, 24, says it was “so exciting” to watch Roger Federer delivering clutch performances and sealing wins for Team Europe in the first few Laver Cup editions. In 2017 – the Laver Cup’s inaugural edition – Federer edged out Nick Kyrgios 4-6 7-6 (6) 11-9 in the last match to seal a win for Team Europe over Team World.
In the next two years, Federer played four more matches – two in 2018 and two more in 2019 – and he went 4-4 in those matches. Federer represented Team Europe in the first three Laver Cup editions and his team went perfect 3/3 during that period. “When I watched on TV the first series, it was so exciting, because [Roger Federer] played a couple of times the final match of the Sunday and clutched it for Team Europe,” Ruud said.
Roger Federer© Getty Images Sport – Julian Finney
Ruud hopes to follow in the footsteps of Federer, bring Team Europe some wins
This past weekend in Vancouver, Ruud made his third consecutive Laver Cup appearance.
In six singles matches played at this year’s Laver Cup, Ruud was the only one who was able to deliver Team Europe a win as he defeated Tommy Paul 7-6 (2) 6-2. Ruud won his lone match played at this year’s Laver Cup but his teammates didn’t deliver as Team World ended up crushing Team Europe 13-2. “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.
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 [in 2021]. So two points is much better than one,” Ruud said.
