How does a tennis team captain with six continents do his disposal for players? Andre Agassi, the seven-fold Grand SLAM champion, has been finding out in recent weeks.
Agassi is the new leader of Team World op de Laver Cup, the annual team event that was co -founded in 2017 by Roger Federer, which starts on Friday in San Francisco. At first glance, the 55-year-old American has an uncomplicated task: build a tennis team of six players from a selection of six continents.
Instead, injuries, burn -out and wedding plans Agassi led to a late clambering, which ended in Alex the Minaur of Australia, which has Frances Tiafoe of the United States replaced. His six -year -old team now has a 50/50 split between the US and everywhere elsewhere, which is the best ratio that has managed the global team in the short history of Laver Cups.
Of the 48 slots for team world so far, 25 went to Americans and seven to Canadians, with a total of six countries. The other four are Argentina, Australia, South Africa and this year Brazil, with rising talent Joo Fonseca on Agassis Roster. The 19-year-old is one of Agassis Three Captains Picks; Three players receive automatic invitation to play their world ranking at the end of the French Open in June.
De Laver Cup wants to become the Ryder -Cup of Tennis, looking for the weight and prestige of the biennial golf competition that Europe travels to the US against the US, the teams are composed with a mix of automatic qualification by rank and capins Picks, but the aspiration says a calm thing in the Laver Cup.
While Europe joined the Ryder Cup in 1979 to shake hands with Great Britain against the US versus Great -Britain, in tennis, the US who need a hand. In the nine seasons of Herentennis with a Laver Cup, Europeans have won every Grand Slam title. (The fact that all three of the big three came from the continent helps.) When the ranking invitations for this year's Laver Cup went out in June, Europe Bagsy rights had on the top six players; The appearance costs that players receive are also bound by their ranking.
Yet Earth minus Europe has many people and many countries. But the three picks per captain and even the three selections by ranking are influenced by the old tennis dance between planning, economy and star power that floats just about everything in the sport. The presence of Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic made the sale of Laver Cup tickets at least until 2022, when Federer retired after playing with Nadal, his big rival, in a double rubber.
Since then, the event has had to ride a little harder in choosing the people it thinks they will sell tickets. Tennis can be a worldwide sport, but a lack of professional tournaments, figureheads to serve as inspiration and sports colonial history means that Africa's own tennis culture is still developing. Asia organizes many tournaments and has many players; Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan, one of the most mercurial talents in sport, has questioned the focus on North and South America and Australia several times. They have again provided all players this year.
Fonseca, whose climb has helped to resuscitate his Brazils Tennis Fervor, was an obvious choice for Agassi; Francisco Cerndolo is the top player in Argentina, whose fans are waiting for their next Juan Martin del Potro. The two were planned to become a member of Agassis Three -arranged Picks Plus one, all of whom come from the US: Taylor Fritz, Ben Shelton, Tommy Paul and Frances Tiafoe.
Fritz is still in, but Shelton and Paul came from the US open with injuries. Tiafoe gives priority to rest after a series of disappointing results. So Agassi and his vice captain, Pat Rafter, started searching.
US Open Semifinalist Flix Auger-Aliassy from Canada would have been a solid sub, but he has the guts to get married.
World No. 8 Alex de Minaur, an automatic ranking in June, was planning to skip the event. He had to go back to Australia after the US Open for a Davis Cup -similar to Belgium. Flying back over the Pacific for the Laver Cup, and then back again for the Hardcourt Swing of tournaments in Asia, felt self -destroying.
Rafter, his countryman, picked up the phone to make some arm. Soon the Minaur sang a different tune.
During an interview on Thursday in San Francisco, the Minaur said that playing the event did not really feel like his schedule. Rafter, he said, then assured him that they would not wear out too much. The priority must be the body, said the Minaur, who must have a solid swing in Asia to enclose his place for the ATP Tour Finals in Turin in November.
When I had that certainty, I believed that I could do it, he said.
That left two more places to fill. Another Australian, Alexei Pofyrin, was the next one by ranking in June, but has since fallen. Denis Shapovalov from Canada plays an ATP event in China. Sebstian Bez from Argentina is not a hard fan.
So when the calls, calendar cheek lessons and appearance costs were made, Team World returned to the well: 21-year-old Alex Michelsen and 28-year-old Reilly Opelka of the US, with another American, 24-year-old Jenson Brooksby, as a reserve. The two recruits such as the inner conditions, especially Opelka with its monstrous services. And Rafter said last month in an interview that his team had eliminated his work, even before the two top players, Fritz and the Minaur, arrived in San Francisco after Davis Cup defeated and, in their eyes, our open disappointment.
There will not be that sharpening training, two-on-one and Point Play and Match play that I would have in mind to get their focus back and enjoy the experience, and then when it plays, it can hire it for those matches, Rafter said.
Then there is the challenge to come in as a large underdog for Alcaraz and his crew. Even with the world on their back the tennis, at least.