Laver Cup: The Event, The Players, The Fed

[jimlosaltos]

Once again Roger Federer's creation to honor Rod Laver, the Laver Cup sold out a large venue, this time the 18,000 seat Chase Center in San Francisco. This month's TPN Tour Portrait is a bit of a change of pace, giving you a mix of the environment, the sheer enthusiasm of the capacity crowd, the showmanship, as well the players in competition and at practice.

Please click to see October's Tour Portrait: The Laver Cup San Francisco 2025.

This image of new Team World coach Andre' Agassi, seemingly imitating the Big Head in The Wizard of Oz, conveys the energy of the event - the crowd, the laser light show and Andre' who was a bubbling, mugging delight gasping at great shots by de Minaur, Frtiz and more.

Agassi was a hoot. He seemed like a joyful child getting to sit (largely stand and cheer and gasp) right next to the court. When de Minaur would make a great get, Andre would light up - eyes huge, hands on top of his bald head. All this is in giant size on the video screen. Crowd cheering and laughing along with him.

Fed held court like the tennis royalty he is, spending the fort nite in the SF Bay Area, doing charity events, hitting with the Stanford Men's Tennis Team, meeting the new mayor. His appearance with Andy Roddick, streamed live on Andy's podcast, drew a huge crowd before the event even started.

P.S. I'll have a few more images and also I want to discuss Fed's ability to fill the seats in cities the ATP and WTA can't seem to figure out how to do business in.

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[don_budge]

Once again Roger Federer's creation to honor Rod Laver, the Laver Cup sold out a large venue, this time the 18,000 seat Chase Center in San Francisco. This month's TPN Tour Portrait is a bit of a change of pace, giving you a mix of the environment, the sheer enthusiasm of the capacity crowd, the showmanship, as well the players in competition and at practice.

Please click to see October's Tour Portrait: The Laver Cup San Francisco 2025.

This image of new Team World coach Andre' Agassi, seemingly imitating the Big Head in The Wizard of Oz, conveys the energy of the event - the crowd, the laser light show and Andre' who was a bubbling, mugging delight gasping at great shots by de Minaur, Frtiz and more.

More like Uncle Fester from the Adam's Family fame.

[jimlosaltos]

This is the crowd the day before the event, gathered to hear Fed interviewed for Andy Roddick's podcast.

To paraphrase Alan Iverson of the NBA: "A podcast? For a podcast? "

Among the good lines in the interview:
Andy: Why did you hate hitting with Rafa?
Fed: He started out hitting as hard as he could. Same with Agassi. No warm up, no variety. Bang. Bang. Bang.

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[jimlosaltos]

Fed was around the city for weeks not only promoting the event but working to support local charities.

Had a check up with my cardiologist who showed me a video of a friend hitting with Fed. For a hefty $100,000 charitable donation, VC/equity types got to hit with him. Our friend got in subbing for an injured donor. This guy's a pretty good player. He said thet when Fed realized he could rally, he picked it up -- but he didn't increase the speed, he started hitting huge spin. Friend had never seen anything like it

Here's a picture from the overhead screen of Kesha Weekes, the Executive Director of EPATT, a local charity started by Dick Gould, the famous Stanford tennis coach, and some of his old players. Kesha heads one of two featured charities. { I shared some photos of kids going through EPATT program in this forum a while back. }

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