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World No. 5 Andrey Rublev joked that Roger Federer was supporting Rest of the World on the final day of the Laver Cup. Rublev and Alexander Zverev defeated Reilly Opelka and Denis Shapovalov 6-2, 6-7 (4), 10-3 to close out the tie and seal a dominant 14-1 victory for Team Europe.
After Jim Courier thanked Federer for supporting him in Boston, Rublev interrupted to say, "I don't know, I saw Roger supporting the Rest of the World during our doubles!" Zverev, who recently finished runner-up at the US Open, backed Rublev's claim.
"Actually, that makes sense now because he was also trying to confuse me during singles yesterday," Zverev said. "While the whole team was telling me to do one thing, he was telling me to do the opposite. So now, I get it, a smart guy over there!" John Isner made Zverev work hard in his only singles match at the Laver Cup.
However, Zverev found a way to win by beating Isner 7-6 (5), 6-7 (6), 10-5. "My whole team was telling me to step back on the return, then Roger is behind me telling me to step forward on the return, so he was confused. In the end, I didn't know who to listen to, do I listen to eight people? On the bench or I listen to 20 Grand Slams there.
Now when I win, no one will care, no one will ever talk about it again. That's the most important thing," Zverev added.
Federer on his training regimen
Following his quarter-final exit at Wimbledon this year, Roger Federer spoke to Jonathan Heaf of the GQ Magazine about a number of topics, including his campaign at SW19 and how he has modified his training regimen with age.
During the course of the interview, Federer also spoke about how different his body feels now compared to when he was 20. According to the Swiss, there are always certain niggles that tend to pop up at 40. "I used to have a lot of back problems, but these kind of went away because I was able to fix those, you know, but then, naturally, you have other issues as they come about," the Swiss explained.
"I think the biggest difference for me that I feel is that when you are 20 and you have a back issue, a couple of good sleeps and it’s done, it’s gone. Not so much now! Nowadays, the pain can last for days, weeks or longer.
And this slows you down in terms of how many tournaments [you can play]." Federer also emphasized the need to be selective with his training regimen and to pay attention to his body. "So as you get older you need to get stricter, I think, with what you can do, even in training.
Maybe you need to pick what you do: the jumps or the running, but not both at the same time as you once did. You need to listen to your body more, take notice of the signs," Federer continued.