“Don't lose for me on my last one, okay?” John McEnroe urges Team World to win third Laver Cup title

John McEnroe has called on his Laver Cup players to secure victory before he steps down. The former World No. 1 is ending his 7-year tenure as Team World captain and will be replaced by Andre Agassi starting in 2025, while Björn Borg will be succeeded by Yannick Noah.

The 7-time Grand Slam champion hopes to achieve a third consecutive victory for Team World, which in the last two editions managed to reduce the historical score to 4-2, after four years of European dominance since the tournament's inception in 2017.

The team assembled by McEnroe consists of Taylor Fritz, Ben Shelton, Frances Tiafoe, Alejandro Tabilo, Francisco Cerundolo, and Thanasi Kokkinakis. In recent days, Alex De Minaur and Tommy Paul withdrew, and Cerundolo and Kokkinakis came in as replacements for the initially planned team.

In a press conference, John McEnroe was asked if he expects to achieve a third consecutive win: “That sounds like an incredible thing. Since this is my last year, and it's been a blast, it would be amazing to go out in style,” said the 4-time US Open champion.

“So we're going to go out guns blazing. We've got a great group. There is a lot of energy in that building right now, and it's going to be even more over the weekend. We're pumped up to give it our best shot.”

While answering the question alongside the rest of the team, McEnroe jokingly 'threatened' them, after banging his hand on the table: “If they lose -- don't lose for me on my last one, okay? That's all I'm saying,” joked McEnroe.

McEnroe also shared his favorite memories as Team World captain in the Laver Cup: “First of all, you know me well enough to know that Rod Laver was my idol,” he began. “Roger Federer to me is the most beautiful player I have ever seen play on a tennis court. To be able to look on the other side and see my greatest rival and great friend, Bjorn Borg, and have my brother as my right-hand man, it's pretty hard to top that for me personally.”

“Without a doubt, you know, when Frances won that final point in London (2022) would be the greatest moment in history for me, I'll let Patrick finish, but when we finally got -- I was starting honestly to feel like the Washington Generals with the Globetrotters. None of us wanted to feel that. So that was an incredible moment. We carried that through last year.”

“Now we have a chance to go out unbelievably, like three in a row. So that would be incredible,” McEnroe stated.