Roger Federer's farewell tournament will be at the 2022 Laver Cup. However, Carlos Alcaraz and his team decided to opt out from the chance to be part of Team Europe, alongside tennis stars such as Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Stefanos Tsitsipas.
As Alcaraz clinched his goal to be youngest World No.1 of the ATP Ranking, he is already planning ahead for the 2023 season. That's why after he won over Casper Ruud at the Billie Jean King Tennis Center, he took a little break from tennis to decide which tournaments to play. In his list were the Davis Cup, and the Laver Cup.
In fact, Alcaraz played for the Spanish tennis team in two games for the 2022 Davis Cup. So, the Laver Cup had to be set aside, despite he is the current worlwide face of tennis. However, the reason is not related to an injury or anything like it.
Why is Carlos Alcaraz not playing in the 2022 Laver Cup?
In a Carlos Alcaraz's sponsors event, the 19-year-old Spaniard revealed the reason why his team and him decided to opt out from playing side by side one of his "tennis idols", Roger Federer. "We thought about it and talked about it, but for sporting reasons we are not going to go, as I have been competing for a long time and I had to rest. Playing the Laver Cup, which is a beautiful competition, would have been nice, but we decided it was better to think about the future.", he said to the media present at the event.
In fact, there were reports about talkings between Tony Godsick, Laver Cup's CEO and Roger Federer's manager, and Carlos Alcaraz's management team on May of this year. "Captain Borg would love to have him with us. I know there have been some conversations with him. The information I'm getting from the team is that he's excited to hear more. I'm optimistic that he's going to play. He would be a very valuable asset, not just for this year, but going forward. We're very keen to make sure he plays for Europe." he said at that time before Alcaraz eventually declined the invitation for this tournament.
As of now, Team Europe is composed by Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Casper Ruud, Andy Murray, and Roger Federer. The only alternate for the European team is Italian Matteo Berrettini. And, team captains are Bjorn Borg and Thomas Enqvist.
