Nick Kyrgios recounted a Laver Cup thriller against Roger Federer as the 28-year-old Australian still remembers extremely well a very painful loss he suffered to the Swiss tennis icon seven years ago.
The Laver Cup – which was co-founded by Federer and his long-time agent Tony Godsick – held its inaugural edition in 2017 in Prague. That year, Federer led Team Europe while Kyrgios was one of the biggest names on Team World.
On the final day of the event, Team Europe had a 12-9 lead over Team World and Kyrgios entered the Federer match in a must-win situation. After starting the match well and winning the first set, Kyrgios kept playing at a high level for the remainder of the match but still lost in tight three sets as Federer saved a match point en route to beating the Australian 4-6 7-6 (6) 11-9 and sealing Team Europe’s win at the inaugural Laver Cup edition.
On Instagram, Kyrgios stumbled upon a video of Federer converting a match point to seal a win in their 2017 Laver Cup match after two hours and six minutes of play.
“Had a match point. This one hurt,” Kyrgios captioned his Instagram Story.
Nick Kyrgios and Roger Federer© Nick Kyrgios – Instagram
Kyrgios had a match point against Federer at the 2017 Laver Cup
After earning the first break of the match in the fifth game, Kyrgios held on to his serve for the rest of the first set to go up by a set versus Federer.
In the second set, Federer claimed an early break for a 3-1 lead but Kyrgios managed to get that break back and eventually force a tie-break. In the second-set tie-break, Kyrgios saved Federer’s three consecutive set points to tie the tie-break to six points apiece but then lost the next two points as the Swiss managed to force a decider.
In the match tie-break, Kyrgios had an 8-5 lead and later his first match point at 9-8. But from that moment, Kyrgios lost the next three points as Federer escaped with a very tight win over the Australian in an outstanding match.
Nick Kyrgios and Roger Federer© Getty Images Sport – Julian Finney
Kyrgios and Federer met again at the Laver Cup in 2018 and 2019, with the Swiss winning both of those meetings.
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