It was not the Laver Cup debut that Alejandro Davidovich Fokina would have liked, with the Team Europe representative going down 6-3, 7-5 to Francisco Cerundolo of Team World on day one of the tournament.
The Spaniard was not without his chances in the second singles match of the day, having several break points on his opponent’s serve early in the first set, and getting up 2-0 to begin the second. However, Davidovich Fokina could not find his rhythm in Vancouver, with the world No 25 falling in straight sets to Cerundolo.
Now, Davidovich Fokia has explained that delays to his travel meant he was unable to acclimatise to the different conditions in time ahead of his opening match.
Travel delays and slow courts the downfall of Davidovich Fokina
Coming straight to Canada from the Davis Cup in Valencia, Spain, over the weekend, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina had several travel delays along the way.
“Missing the flights and the delays and the change of hours from London and here, I came Wednesday night and I just have one day to practice here,” explained the Spaniard.
“Then is not enough to be ready 100 percent. I think I just to have one more day to adapt my game here, and I think I was ready.”
Davidovich Fokina had mixed success at the Davis Cup, winning his initial singles match against Soonwoo Kwon 6-4, 6-4, before losing 6-3, 6-4 to Novak Djokovic and 7-6 (5), 7-5 to Jiri Lehecka. He explained how the conditions in Valencia differed to those here in Vancouver:
“I came from Davis Cup and was faster than here. Here, when you have a couple rallies, the balls were bigger and bigger. For sure I needed one more day to adapt my game in this court.”
Despite the frustrations, at least Davidovich Fokina has one thing to take away from day one of the Laver Cup—he enjoyed being on court next to the legendary Bjorn Borg, describing the moment as “a nice story I will tell to my kids.”
