Tennis great John McEnroe has stolen the show in his final press conference as captain of Team World at the Laver Cup.
The 65-year-old has led the team against Europe for the past and only seven Laver Cups since its inception in 2017, and thought he was going out on the ultimate high in the dying stages of the contest.
A win would have given Team World a three-peat of victories over the start-studded European team, but the underdogs fell just short, bringing the overall score line to 5-2 in favour of Europe.
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Asked in the immediate post-competition press conference what best he would remember his time as captain for, McEnroe colourfully informed media in the room that he was in no state to do so.
“Probably a little too early to say right now after this defeat that just took place where I was just ready for the three-peat and (to) celebrate, and I would’ve been in a different state of mind, perhaps slightly inebriated,” McEnroe said to the laughs of the room.
“The champagne was in our room, I felt like it was, you know… maybe I jumped to conclusions.”
McEnroe then started physically acting out how he got “slightly inebriated” when he thought Team World had it in the bag.
“I was just… it (the champagne cork) was turning, and I was just like, ‘OK, here we are, I’m going out (with) three in a row’,” he said.
“And then suddenly now I’m here talking to you and you’re asking me for my god damn moments from the last seven years. Let’s talk about it another day, if you don’t mind. We’ll put it in the Laver Cup magazine.”
American star Frances Tiafoe could be seen in the background leaning back and looking at his teammates with a laugh when McEnroe said he was a bit tipsy.
“John McEnroe is comedy. One of the funniest post-match press conferences of all time,” one social media fan page said of the moment.
Europe fought back to win their first Laver Cup for three years on the back of Carlos Alcaraz producing some brilliant tennis to beat Taylor Fritz 6-2, 7-5 in the deciding rubber in Berlin, wrenching McEnroe’s side’s three-peat away.
The win gave Europe a 13-11 success on Sunday after they had been behind to Team World for the whole of the final day in the men’s tennis equivalent of golf’s Ryder Cup.
“It’s great, obviously we came here with a goal, all of us, that is to win the Laver Cup,” said the 21-year-old Spaniard Alcaraz.
“It’s really difficult to watch the matches from outside, you know, a lot of nerves, killing us.”
Europe, captained by Bjorn Borg, won the first four editions but McEnroe’s Team World, which featured Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis, had triumphed in the last two.
Zverev set the ball rolling after he had earlier belied a previous illness in a comeback win over Frances Tiafoe.
Zverev wowed his home fans at Berlin’s Uber Arena by battling to a 6-7 (5-7), 7-5 (10-5) victory in a match tie-break, less than a day after he had lost to Taylor Fritz while complaining of fever.
American Ben Shelton shrugged off losing the doubles to go straight back out to beat Europe’s Daniil Medvedev 6-7 (6-8), 7-5 (10-7) in the match breaker.
The World led 11-7 at that stage but three points for a win on day three compared to two on Saturday and one on Friday proved crucial.
Europe’s Alcaraz and Casper Ruud had previously combined to beat Shelton and Tiafoe 6-2, 7-6 (8-6) in the doubles to cut the World’s lead to 8-7 at the start of the final day of the three-day tournament.
– With AAP
