When John McEnroe and Björn Borg take to the stage at the gala event in Berlin on Thursday evening before the start of the Laver Cup 2024, it will be the last time the two eternal rivals introduce their teams. After seven tournaments since 2017 (the Laver Cup was cancelled in 2020 due to Covid), the two tennis legends are handing over their duties as coaches of Team Europe and Team World to Andre Agassi and Yannick Noah. Björn Borg has won the title four times with his team, John McEnroe twice, but in his dialogue with his opponent, he is simultaneously aggressive and optimistic that he does not want to end his career as coach of Team World without a win.
The audience at this high-calibre event on the eve of the tournament will also include Rod Laver, the now 86-year-old super-sportsman who is the only tennis player ever to win all four Grand Slam titles in one year, and who has made the long journey from Australia to Berlin to once again, as he has done every year before, to give the tournament named after him a face and, above all, touch the hearts of entire generations of tennis players with his aura.
Rod Laver
© Rolex, Julian Kingma
Roger Federer, another popular figure in the sport, and Rolex jointly created the Laver Cup back in 2017. The special thing about this tournament is that the players of the respective European and World teams become comrades rather than rivals for three days, and there is a very unique atmosphere on the sidelines, as the players are cheered on by their teammates – or even tease their opponents, just as their (still) coaches Borg and McEnroe have done since their memorable final match at Wimbledon in 1980, in which Borg won after a nerve-wracking five-set match.
© Rolex, Antoine Couvercelle
After all the guests have taken their seats in their black dinner jackets and elegant evening gowns and the gala programme for the evening is about to start, Roger Federer sneaks into the hall to his table unnoticed. Ever polite, he greets each guest personally before taking his own seat and former tennis pro Andrea Petković comes on stage to start the ceremony. Team Europe has a clear statistical advantage with six players in the top 10 of the ATP world rankings, including Alexander Zverev, currently the second-best player in the world. Team World’s top seed is Taylor Fritz at number 7 in the current world rankings (as of 20/09/2024). Almost half of the participating players are Rolex Ambassadors: Carlos Alcaraz, Stéfanos Tsitsipás, Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton, as well as Team Europe Captain Björn Borg. Rod Laver and Roger Federer are also brand ambassadors.
Carlos Alcaraz at the Wimbledon finals 2024
© Rolex, Jon Buckle
Rolex’s involvement in tennis goes back almost half a century, when the watchmaker first became an official sponsor of Wimbledon in 1978. Today, no other watch brand is as strongly represented in tennis as Rolex. Rolex is the official sponsor of all four Grand Slams, the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open, as well as the Nitto ATP Finals, the WTA Finals, the Davis Cup Finals and, of course, the Laver Cup. For years, Rolex has also demonstrated a skilful hand in selecting its brand ambassadors and almost always recognises the potential of young talents such as Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner or even Iga Światek and Coco Gauff at a very early stage. It is not uncommon for the young players under contract with Rolex to shoot to the top of the world rankings. Alcaraz, Sinner, Światek and Gauff are or were all number 1 in the world tennis rankings – Coco Gauff in doubles. But there is probably no testimonial in sport that is as closely associated with a brand as Roger Federer with Rolex, who has been representing the watchmaker since 2001 and has lifted the trophies of his successes with numerous models over the last 20 years of his career. But Federer is also known for his exquisite choice of watches off the court. In photos of Federer in the audience at the Uber Arena, where the Laver Cup 2024 took place, you could recognise a vintage Rolex on his wrist – either a Submariner without a Cyclops magnifying glass or a Sea-Dweller; it was not entirely clear. But it certainly shows his good taste in watches.
© Rolex, Antoine Couvercelle
Before the first match between Casper Ruud and Francisco Cerúndolo starts on Friday afternoon, we take a look behind the scenes of the Laver Cup on a backstage tour. Props from days gone by remind us of the achievements of Rod Laver, who gave the tournament its name, but also of how much the sport and its equipment have changed since Laver’s active days. Opposite Rod Laver’s framed original wooden racket is the latest version of the Wilson Pro Staff Laver Cup Edition, which Roger Federer designed together with the sporting goods manufacturer, with SABR frame design and Braid 45 technology. Then, Roger Federer appears in person for the Meet & Greet in the Rolex Lounge, greets every guest with a handshake, introduces himself, which is a gesture of courtesy but would certainly not have been necessary, and takes time for photos. Then things have to move quickly – the opening ceremony starts with a spectacular production and ends with a standing ovation for Rod Laver, whose life’s work and immense contribution to the sport are paid tribute to.
And Borg and McEnroe? After Team World was clearly ahead on Saturday, McEnroe had to endure another painful defeat against his eternal rival. Carlos Alcaraz won the decisive match against Taylor Fritz on Sunday evening.
© Rolex, Antoine Couvercelle
As a thank you and in recognition of their achievements as coaches over the past eight years, Roger Federer presented them both with a custom-made Rolex GMT-Master II signed ‘Laver Cup Team World / Europe Captain 2017 – 2024’. Björn Borg received a GMT-Master II with a blue and black bezel (known more commonly as the ‘Batman’) and McEnroe a red and blue bezel (dubbed the ‘Pepsi’) to match their team colours. Next year, Agassi and Noah will face each other in San Francisco.
