{"id":783018,"date":"2026-09-26T08:02:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T08:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/783018\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T08:02:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T08:02:13","slug":"john-mcenroe-and-andy-roddick-contemplate-best-all-time-laver-cup-teams-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/783018\/","title":{"rendered":"John McEnroe and Andy Roddick contemplate best all-time Laver Cup teams | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

When former Team World Captain John McEnroe and Andy Roddick sat together on the Served\u00a0podcast stage in the Laver Cup Fan Zone on Friday they attempted to create the best all-time Laver Cup teams. It was harder than they thought.<\/p>\n

Beginning with Team World, McEnroe started with Pete Sampras. \u201cTo me if Pete put his mind to it, he would have been an incredible doubles player,\u201d McEnroe said.<\/p>\n

Andre Agassi was an obvious choice. \u201cIf you\u2019re thinking about a situation where you\u2019re not picking a top doubles team, you have to pick guys who are able to rise to the occasion in both singles and doubles,\u201d McEnroe said.<\/p>\n

Then the discussion turned to top Australians, such as Team World vice-captain Pat Rafter and Lleyton Hewitt, as well as Americans Jimmy Connors and Jim Courier.<\/p>\n

When it came time for Team Europe, the picks came fast. The Big 3, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, were first, then Roddick added McEnroe. McEnroe also selected Swede Stefan Edberg, German Boris Becker and Brit Andy Murray.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s it,\u201d McEnroe said, after picking seven.<\/p>\n

But the discussion didn\u2019t stop, with the pair realizing they\u2019d overlooked Mats Wilander, Ivan Lendl, Bjorn Borg and Carlos Alcaraz.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know who I\u2019d kick out, that\u2019s a tough call,\u201d McEnroe said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t want to kick any of those guys out. Alcaraz would be a hell of an alternate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best I\u2019ve ever seen at his age, the most complete player at that age who can do absolutely everything. He is right up there with Roger.\u201d \u2013 McEnroe on Alcaraz<\/p>\n

McEnroe discussed the changes in surfaces and playing style that moved the game back to the baseline, something Alcaraz changed again by having every shot in his arsenal. He credits the Spaniard with pushing the sport in a new direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was willing to come in on big points, willing to use a drop shot at five-all in a tiebreaker, these things that were sort of unheard of,\u201d McEnroe said. \u201cIt forces the other players to work on their net game, their drop shot. In the long run, it is really going to help the game, I am hoping. Who wouldn\u2019t want to copy this guy. This guy has the greatest smile, he\u2019s the greatest thing that\u2019s happened to tennis in 10 years, one of the greatest things that\u2019s ever happened to tennis. Do I want him to win this weekend? Maybe not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Carlos\u201cOne of the greatest things that\u2019s ever happened to tennis,\u201d\u00a0 John McEnroe said of Carlos Alcaraz.
\nThe Art of Selecting Players<\/p>\n

When discussing the art of selecting players for Laver Cup, McEnroe looked back at his own experience competing in team events.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are bringing together top players from the rankings,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is like a chemistry thing, how well are they going to get behind each other?\u201d<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t always go well for McEnroe.<\/p>\n

\u201cI played Davis Cup one year with [Connors] where we spent the entire year until the final doubles match not speaking to each other. It was him not acknowledging me. At some stage Jimmy didn\u2019t feel like he wanted to speak to me and didn\u2019t want to stay in the same hotel as me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, during doubles, in the finals against Sweden, McEnroe said he saw Connors cheering for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in the fourth-set tiebreak, and I haven\u2019t spoken to Jimmy in 10 months and all of a sudden, we play a point, and we win this point and Jimmy is like \u2018Come on guys,\u2019 and totally turns around and starts rooting for us,\u201d McEnroe said. \u201cThis is the part where I feel really bad. I thought, \u2018To hell with Connors, I\u2019m going to lose this f\u2014ing match.\u2019 Well, here\u2019s the problem, I\u2019m playing for my country, I\u2019m not playing for myself. I had some very mixed feelings. Then we got along fine for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometimes dynamics can be thorny, and it plays into choosing lineups.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, you want your best players playing singles your last two days,\u201d McEnroe said. \u201cWe had a team meeting to feel it out. You want to get a good start.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"John McEnroe won his first Laver Cup as captain of Team World in 2022 at The O2.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s the doubles that McEnroe always looked to, knowing that most of the top players don\u2019t play doubles regularly, so it gave him a chance to even the playing field. Doubles helped Team World get their first Laver Cup win in 2022 at The O2.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeer tastes amazing [out of the trophy],\u201d he said. \u201cIt all tasted amazing that night.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When former Team World Captain John McEnroe and Andy Roddick sat together on the Served\u00a0podcast stage in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":783019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[10372,15928,101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-783018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-andy-roddick","tag-john-mcenroe","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}