Roger Federer gifts John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg custom Rolex watches as they bid farewell to Laver Cup

McEnroe and Borg have been associated with the Laver Cup since its inception in 2017.

Roger Federer presented outgoing Laver Cup captains John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg a custom Rolex GMT-Master II watches in their respective team colours. Federer, instrumental in making the Laver Cup a reality, picked up a Rolex Model, keeping the team colours in mind.

McEnroe was gifted a Pepsi while a Batman will adorn the wrist of Borg, each with the engraving “Laver Cup, Team Europe/Team World Captain, 2017-2024.”

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Borg and McEnroe have led Team Europe and Team World, respectively, since the first edition in 2017. The Laver Cup led to a rekindling of their intense rivalry when they faced each other 14 times between 1978 and 1981.

Their contrasting temperaments and playing styles were a highlight of their on-court rivalry. Borg was calm and collected on court, his demeanour often bordering on a distinct lack of emotion.

McEnroe gained notoriety for his court-side tantrums, particularly his meltdown when disputing a line call at Wimbledon in 1981, which gave us the immortal phrase in tennis, “You cannot be serious.” That phrase even made it to the title of McEnroe’s autobiography.

Laver Cup will move to San Francisco for the 2025 edition and will see Frenchman Yannick Noah take charge of Team Europe while Andre Agassi will take over the reins of Team World.

The seventh edition of the Laver Cup took place from September 20 to 23. Team Europe narrowly made it across the finish line against Team World thanks to Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz’s decisive win over American Taylor Fritz (6-2, 7-5) in the tournament’s final match. The result was 13-11 in favour of Team Europe.

The latest result mirrored the outcome in the 2019 Geneva edition, where Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal led Team Europe to a 13-11 win for their third straight trophy.

On the final day, Ben Shelton defeated Daniil Medvedev in the first singles tie to bring Team World to the precipice of victory, picking up three invaluable points to nudge his side ahead 11-7.

That was before local hero Alexander Zverev defeated Frances Tiafoe, helping Team Europe remain in the hunt. Alcaraz shut the door on Team World’s chances of a third straight Laver Cup trophy by taking down Taylor Fritz in 90 minutes. Team Europe has now won five of the previous seven editions of the team event.

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