Casper Ruud recently shared a humorous anecdote about Carlos Alcaraz from Team Europe's team dinner ahead of the 2024 Laver Cup. This year marks the seventh edition of the Laver Cup, and Team World will be aiming to secure a third consecutive title following their title wins in London in 2022 and Vancouver in 2023, while Team Europe will be looking to secure their fifth title.
This year, the Laver Cup is scheduled to take place at the Uber Arena in Berlin, Germany, from September 20 to September 22, 2024. Team Europe will be captained by Bjorn Borg and Thomas Enqvist is the vice-captain. The team boasts a lineup of players like Alexander Zverev, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Casper Ruud, Grigor Dimitrov, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Flavio Cobolli, and Jan-Lennard Struff.
Ahead of their campaign at the Laver Cup, Team Europe participated in a press conference where they were asked to share a story from their Laver Cup team dinner. Ruud humorously recounted an incident where the topic of Borg traveling on the now-retired Concorde aircraft arose, after which it was revealed that Alcaraz was unfamiliar with the aircraft.
Ruud explained that the team had to search for information about the Concorde on Google to educate the Spaniard, who, being young, was unaware of the aircraft's significance.
"I thought it was funny, because Bjorn told us a story about when he flew the Concorde to New York, and Carlos, he didn't even know what the Concorde was. (Laughter). We had to Google the Concorde for Carlos because he's too young," Ruud said.
Carlos Alcaraz on playing at Laver Cup 2024: "I'm gonna try to enjoy, try to learn as much as I can"
In the aforementioned press conference, Carlos Alcaraz, who is playing at the Laver Cup for the first time, expressed that it is his "privilege" to have the opportunity to be surrounded by tennis legends such as Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe, and Rod Laver in the tournament.
Alcaraz stated that he is eager to learn from these icons and make the most of his time in Berlin.
"For me it's a privilege to be surrounded by Bjorn, by McEnroe, Rod Laver, the legends from our sport who top the tennis in the top of the sport. So for me, to just try to learn from them so closely, and obviously here in the Laver Cup, I think it's a really beautiful tournament that I'm gonna try to enjoy as much as I can," Carlos Alcaraz said.
The Spaniard also mentioned that he is excited to cheer for the players of Team Europe, a change from his usual position of competing against them.
"With my partners, we used to fight against each other during the whole tournament. Now in this tournament we're gonna cheer on each other. It's gonna be a beautiful thing that I'm gonna try to enjoy, but yeah, I'm gonna try to learn from them as well as much as I can," he added.
Carlos Alcaraz will kick off his 2024 Laver Cup campaign by playing doubles alongside Alexander Zverev and their first opponents will be the American duo of Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton.