Alexander Bublik played his first Laver Cup last weekend, in London. Called up by Roger Federer and by Andre Agassi, captain of Team World. In Beijing, he said he had completely changed his mind: “It’s a very serious competition, I’m not afraid to say it, even though a lot of fans accuse me of changing my mind.”
A few months ago, he said it was an exhibition, that it earned no ranking points, and that captains always pick those who speak English.
I know this pattern exactly. The Saturday mixed doubles at my club, I called it “a bit of fun” for two seasons. It doesn’t count for the AFT (Belgium’s French-speaking tennis federation) ranking, so. And then one day someone asked me to fill in. I got out my folder of statistics, I changed my strings the night before, and I found the event extremely serious. A bit of fun about it, but very competitive.
What changes is the phone call. For him, it’s Federer and Agassi. For me, it was the man in charge of the clubhouse bar, but the emotion is comparable, I think.
I do note that at the Laver Cup you play as a team, with a bench, people standing up for you. On court 4, under the floodlight, my bench is my towel. The level in club league (interclubs, Belgium’s weekend team league) has gone way up, people don’t realise, but the bench hasn’t moved.
The young man was invited, he came, he changed his mind. In our day we changed our minds too. We didn’t make a press conference of it.
Anyway. If anyone is putting together a Team Walloon Brabant, I’m free at the weekend. Two practice sessions away, mind you.
It’s true, we checked: We Love Tennis.
