LAVER CUP

September 24, 2026

Yannick Noah

Tim Henman

Jakub Mensik

Casper Ruud

Carlos Alcaraz

Alexander Zverev

Flavio Cobolli

Rafael Jodar

Arthur Fery

O2 Arena

Team Europe

Press Conference

TODD WOODBRIDGE: Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to our official press conference for Team Europe.

Yannick, lovely to see you. Back for a second year. So close in Year 1 in San Francisco. What do you plan to do here in London, and how are you getting the team all bonding well together?

CAPTAIN YANNICK NOAH: Well, my job is very easy, basically, sitting in probably the best seat of the whole stadium, looking at champions playing. Sometimes they come to me. I believe that if I make them feel comfortable, slightly happy, they will play well, because they don't need me to play well.

Sometimes they put pressure on me, because sometimes they need bananas and I don't have some, you know (laughter). But I'm very happy and grateful to be here with them. As I told them last night, I'm very happy to be part of this journey.

How I feel? Of course, last year, with tennis players, when we practice, we try to win. We love the game. We count points, and last year we lost.

So of course when you have a team of this caliber losing, the first thing that people did was looking at the captain. So it was my fault. So I'm going to try to be good this year and try to win this time.

Good to see you, by the way.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: Thank you. And likewise.

Well, talking about bringing experience, I want to go to Casper, because your sixth appearance here and you have had a lot of success. But you're up first again, and it's a position that is a difficult one to take.

Now, do you put your hand up and say, I want to go out first? Or how do you go about it? Let's talk about that matchup.

CASPER RUUD: Yeah, I think Yannick particularly wanted me to start maybe because of the experience yesterday, and I said, I'm ready, ready to hopefully get a good start for Team Europe. I have done that I think four times before in the Laver Cup weekend. It's nothing new to me. I'll be ready.

Yeah, playing Francisco. We played here before, played a bunch of other times. We know each other well. Hopefully we bring on a good match and get Europe off to the best start possible.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: Going from experience, let's go down to Rafa at the other end. A Laver Cup call-up. It's been an incredible 12, 18 months' rise for you. You've beaten some big names along that rise. What's it like to be in a team such as this?

RAFAEL JODAR: Yeah, it's great to be with the best players in the world. I think we have very good team this year. Unfortunately they didn't win last year, but I think they are more eager to win it this year.

Yeah, we are looking forward to starting the competition, and yeah, for me, it's a pleasure to be here and to share this week with them.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: Let's go to the alternate, Arthur. London this summer, you have some incredible memories. Being here, practicing with these guys, what's the whirlwind been like since the All England Club in July?

ARTHUR FERY: It's incredible. Yeah, it's been an insane few months. Really happy to be sharing the locker room with all these guys this week.

I'll be behind them all the way. And obviously it being in London again this year, it's awesome for me. It's close to home. I'm very familiar with this arena. I have come here a lot of times when I was younger.

Yeah, I really love this city, and yeah, hoping Team Europe can take it.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: Talking about London, Carlos, coming back to a place that you have done so well before, and in the Laver Cup, the excitement about being back out on court for more matches, but also, one of the key things with you is you love to get involved with that team, come in and do a little bit of coaching.

How do you think the guys all take it when you come in and start giving them some tactical help?

CARLOS ALCARAZ: Well, I will try to obey them. Yeah, for me, it's an honor to be back here in London. I missed it this year, to be honest. And honestly, be able to come back here in the Laver Cup with these guys I would say it's even better.

So I will try to do my best. I will try to help the team as best as I can. Obviously, you know, that's why this event, it's unique, because the players are, I'm usually fighting during the whole year (smiling). Then having them as a coach sometime, it's great, so I always say that you can see the matches and the tennis much better from outside.

So when they approach me and telling me some things, I will try to obey and do whatever it is.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: What about, will they obey your instruction, you think?

CARLOS ALCARAZ: I hope so. I mean, you knows? Hopefully, you know, my instructions are going to be good, good enough for them (smiling).

TODD WOODBRIDGE: I had some instructions from Flavio. He said, Make the question easy.

So here's an easy one. A couple of years ago you were in Arthur's seat...

FLAVIO COBOLLI: Most of the time I didn't understand.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: You were in Arthur's seat two years ago, now in the top 10. That's impressive. So you take a bit more of a leadership role coming into this week?

FLAVIO COBOLLI: I mean, many change since two years ago. I start from alternate, and I played last year for the first time. Then I'm here for the third time in a row.

For me is still a great honor and place to be back on Laver Cup with the best players in the world, as Rafa says, and am trying to bring my energy for the team. I mean, I love to play competition as teammates, and we have the opportunity to be teammates for a week. So we're really looking forward for the first match and for the first day.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: Jakub, for yourself, you obviously started watching the first edition of Laver Cup in your hometown, Prague. Then you end up being in the these situations now.

Do you often think about that and how quickly the career path has been for you?

JAKUB MENSIK: Definitely that's crazy when I think about it, actually, the first, like, year it was back in Prague, me watching in the stands, being 12 years old, and just imagining that one day I can be in the team. It's something that it's really, you know, I wouldn't expect that.

So being here for the second time in a row, it's big honor and privilege, and yeah, of course, even if it didn't went our way last year, we are ready to fight back and to bring the trophy back home.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: Sascha, you have been here many times now. You have had success. You had the other last year. But coming in off a couple of Grand Slam titles this year, it's going to be a completely different feel for you.

ALEXANDER ZVEREV: Yes and no, because in the end of the day, I think we have great champions on this team who all know what it takes to win.

Of course for me, personally, it was quite a satisfying year, but we're here at the Laver Cup as a team. You know, I think for us, the main goal is to lift the Laver Cup trophy and to bring the Laver Cup trophy back to Europe. We do it as a team, we do it as a group of players. Hopefully we can achieve that goal.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: Tim, finally, before we open it up to the room, the yin and yang of captainship, you've got the Agassi/Rafter, you've got the Noah/Henman. They're quite different, aren't they? What do you challenge in Yannick's captainship and the team?

VICE CAPTAIN TIM HENMAN: Well, I think the opportunity in San Francisco was, you know, for me and Yannick, to really get to know each other and spend time with the players. As Yannick mentioned, we did have a great experience in San Francisco, but we lost.

I think coming together again with this group of players, we are equally as motivated in the way that we prepared and practiced, but we want a different result. I think when you see the energy and the passion and the intensity of the players, Team World are no different. We have 12 players inside 22 in the world, so the competition is going to be very, very tough.

I'm sure I speak on behalf of everyone that we really do want to come away with that victory, and as Sascha said, get the trophy back to Europe.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: I will open up to the floor. If you put your hand up, our team will come over to you.

Q. Casper, how does it feel to be back here, especially after 2022? It was such a special year. So I guess you have all the memories, and maybe, I don't know, the pressure to live up to that memory?

CASPER RUUD: Yeah, it feels special. When I came to the arena on Tuesday and had my first practice, I remember when I came on court four years ago, we were there watching Roger have his ceremony and held his speech. His family was around. I think everyone in the stadium was trying to hold back the tears but couldn't, including myself and all the players involved.

I saw all my heroes on one court crying, in tears, because one of the legends was retiring, so hard to describe in words how emotional it was, but yeah, it also leaves a little bit of motivation to add a little bit, avenge the loss that we had in 2022, and we're back here. Maybe we can try to win for Roger this time in the O2.

Q. This one is for Carlos. You're still so young, but when you start to win Grand Slams at the rate you have, people start to look at you as a leader. I wonder what that experience has been like for you and what is that experience like when you're in a team environment also?

CARLOS ALCARAZ: Well, I would say obviously every team has to be a leader, but I think, you know, in this team, there is no leader. I think we all, I mean -- why are you laughing? I'm serious.

CASPER RUUD: Where do you want to go with this? (Laughter.)

CARLOS ALCARAZ: No, no, no. But what I mean is in this team, you know, we have to look, everybody is one of the best players in the world, so we just all, everybody go in the same way. So we trying to help each other the best way we can.

So I'm not seeing me as a leader not even in this competition but in any of them, so just trying to do my best, trying to help these guys, help the team as best as I can, and for me, that's it.

Q. A question for Carlos, as well. There has been a lot of discussion this year about how there's too much tennis basically, such a full schedule, so difficult to find times to rest. This is obviously a week when you and anyone else in the team could be having a training week or a week of rest. What is it about the Laver Cup that makes you want to come here when you could be having a week off?

CARLOS ALCARAZ: Well, because I think we're not used to play team events. I think during the whole year, we don't have team events at all.

I think, for me especially, I love team events, team tournaments, you know, spending time with them, having fun, as you can see the previous year, how much fun I had on the court, off the court.

It is a week, yeah, as you said, I might be training, I might be resting or something, but these kind of weeks help me a lot to bring my joy back on the court, bring my joy back on playing tennis, and helps me a lot for the next tournaments when it is not team events.

So I just try to take the most of this week, obviously get to know the players off the court. For me, it's a privilege which I enjoy a lot.

Yeah, we have to see the other part about enjoying, and having joy when you're playing tennis on this competition is what it brings to me.

Q. This is a question for Yannick. You are a very funny, relaxed, laid-back character. Can you share some thoughts on how you've been able to relax the team this week?

CAPTAIN YANNICK NOAH: I don't have much to do, really. I don't have much to do. Again, I feel very privileged to just sit with them, watch them, you know, interact, and play a great level of tennis.

As Carlos just said, there's something that we have in common, that we love tennis. You know, we love tennis since we were kids, babies, and after the lights are going to be off, we're still going to play tennis.

This is something that we have in common. As he said, playing a team, we all love, for example, most of us love football, and we miss sometimes team camaraderie, the energy that you have in the team in the locker room, and this is what I discovered last year and I really appreciate.

Yes, you can play seriously and have a good time. You know, I'm not here to just bring some stress, no. I don't have stress these days.

Q. A question for Carlos. You recently ranked your hair styles on social media from worst to best with braids at the bottom and your current long hair at the top. Does the team agree with your rankings, or would anyone have changed the order?

CARLOS ALCARAZ: I think they didn't check the orders, so I will try to sort that, and let's see if they agree with it or not.

You know, Sascha Zverev is always trying to make, you know, the ponytail in the back all the times, telling me every day. I don't know if I'm going to reach it or not, but I will sort that later.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: Well, thank you very much. On that note, good luck. We wish you the best, and we'll see you out on court tomorrow.