“Our goal is to give people an experience so great they want to do it again!” said Laver Cup CEO Steve Zacks as he and Laver Cup Chairman Tony Godsick announced a five-year extension of the tournament’s partnership with the ATP.
“We are investing a lot,” Zacks added, shortly before the seventh edition of the Laver Cup began on Friday at Berlin’s Uber Arena. “We are bringing the best possible lineups, we are making the court unique – part of that is the black design of the court and the surrounding area. When you look at a picture, you know it’s the Laver Cup.”
The team event was the brainchild of Roger Federer and his manager Godsick, primarily to honor Rod Laver, who won the calendar year Grand Slam in 1962 and 1969, but also to create a platform where some of the biggest names in tennis history can actively interact with today’s top players.
“Where do former players go?” asked Godsick. “They may be invited to the Royal Box at Wimbledon or the President’s Box at the US Open, but while that’s very nice, they don’t have contact with the next generation of players. At the Laver Cup, today’s players are on the bench with the Borgs and the McEnroes. Rod Laver is here too. And there are others who interact with today’s players behind the scenes.
“This year we have Boris Becker, Michael Stich and Steffi Graf in Berlin, players that today’s elite athletes may never see again. Even Roger hardly spent any time with Carlos Alcaraz, as their careers barely overlapped. The Laver Cup will provide a meeting place for these types of players every year, which Roger and I believe is important for the history of tennis.”
The Laver Cup was first held in 2017, when the Czech capital Prague hosted the inaugural event. Since then, it has been held alternately in Europe and North America, with negotiations already underway for Team World to one day host it in Asia or South America.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I think we could pull off such an incredible event so quickly,” Godsick said. “Just knowing some of the contracts we’ve renewed and where we’re going, I know we’re going to continue to grow. Next year we’re going to be in San Francisco. When we announced it, the owner of the Golden State Warriors (basketball team) took Roger, Steve and me to a game and they talked about the Super Bowl and the Laver Cup coming to the area next year. The Super Bowl and the Laver Cup mentioned in the same sentence – that’s super cool!”
How do such bold plans for the future of the Laver Cup fit into the growing discussions about whether the tennis calendar is too full and players are being forced to play more matches than is healthy?
“There might be too many other tennis events per se, but this one works,” Godsick said. “We have sold-outs, every player enjoys playing, we have the greatest captains, the best sponsors and we’ll be announcing a number of new sponsors soon. Yes, there’s a lot of tennis, but that’s the beauty of such a global sport and we need to feed the global appetite. We need to continue to build different events because if we stay the way we are and only have four majors and a number of tour events, I don’t think tennis will be competitive in the market.”
“And we must not forget that just because there are a lot of events, you don’t have to play the entire calendar. You can do whatever you want. Of course, that has an impact on the rankings, but I don’t think the calendar is too full.”
Godsick and Zacks were also asked about the potential for expanding the Laver Cup, either to include women’s tennis or to include the world’s best junior players. Godsick, who is married to Australian Open and Roland Garros runner-up Mary-Joe Fernandez and has coached several top tennis stars, said talks about including women would intensify once the current Laver Cup reaches its full potential. “Our goal is to be like the Ryder Cup,” he said, “which starts 90 years before us – then we will look at other opportunities.”
