"Roger Federer can put away champagne; I was like damn" - Nick Kyrgios recalls partying with Swiss during Laver Cup outing
Nick Kyrgios recently reminisced about partying with Roger Federer after a Laver Cup tournament. Both players attended the event four times.
Federer and Kyrgios notably represented Team Europe and Team World, respectively, during the 2017 (Prague), 2018 (Chicago) and 2019 (Geneva) editions. They faced each other thrice in the competition — once in each edition — with Federer winning all three times.
Kyrgios recently hosted a Q&A session on his Instagram stories, where a fan asked him to name something he has done with Federer that others don't know about.
He responded by recalling an instance where he saw the Swiss 'putting away' champagne when they were at a party together.
"Can you talk about something u've [sic.] done with the goat rf [Roger Federer] that no one knows," the fan's question read.
"We went out after laver cup one year. ... Team World was partying obviously. .... We turned around, and Team Europe walked in. ... Roger can put away champagne [champagne glasses emoji]. ... I was like damn hahahaha," Kyrgios responded.
Between 2015 and 2019, Kyrgios and Federer met eight times, with the Aussie winning just once. That win came in their first encounter — in the Round of 32 at the 2015 Madrid Masters.
A brief look at Roger Federer and Nick Kyrgios' Laver Cup encounters
Roger Federer and Nick Kyrgios' first encounter at the Laver Cup was arguably one of the best singles matches played in the competition's short history. Leading 12-9 at the time, Team Europe were guaranteed the title if Federer beat Kyrgios on Day 3.
A win for the Aussie, though, would have forced an additional winner-takes-all doubles match. The Swiss roared back from a set down to force the match into a tiebreaker. Federer recovered from an 8-5 deficit to win 4-6, 7-6(6) [11-9] and hand Team Europe victory in the inaugural Laver Cup tournament.
They met in the competition again a year later as well, with Roger Federer beating Kyrgios 6-3, 6-2 on Day 2 to hand Europe a 7-1 lead. They never lost that lead and won the trophy by a 13-8 margin. It was the same story in the 2019 edition as well, but this time, Kyrgios took the match into a tiebreaker.
Federer won 6-7(5), 7-5, [10-7], handing his team a 5-3 lead, which they eventually converted to 13-11 to complete a hat-trick of Laver Cup wins. This was the last time the two played together in the tournament.
Kyrgios participated in the 2021 Laver Cup in Chicago, where he lost both his matches as Europe completed a 14-1 hammering of Team World. Federer, meanwhile, featured in the 2022 edition in London.
That proved to be his last appearance before retirement, with Team World winning the cup for the first time.