Last August, in the press conference that announced details of the inaugural Laver Cup—held this Friday through Sunday at the O2 Arena in Prague, Czech Republic—a reporter asked tennis deity Rod Laver about why there seems to be so much respect among different tennis generations when it’s often lacking in other sports, where elders sometimes affect a 'back-in-my-day' superiority.

Laver answered, almost immediately: “Tennis is a different kettle of fish. You’re one on one … when you look out on the court your whole life is just what you can accomplish in that one and a half or two hours.”

There were few people who have done more with those hours—although some have needed five or six—than the five men who were on stage at the St. Regis Hotel in Manhattan: Laver himself, clearly both tickled and humbled at having this event named for him; still-active greats Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal; and the chief rivals of the 1970s, Björn Borg and John McEnroe.

As Laver continued speaking, he improvised a short monologue that illustrated that no matter how much tennis one watches, or even how many players one interviews, there’s only so much those of us who don’t play the game at the level of the legends can know about the world they inhabit without having it spoon-fed to us. He explained that because you’re so alone on the court, you come to count on players you get to know on the tour, even though those players will, on certain days, be your opponents. He then described how that kinship extends to players of different ages, even though he might not necessarily know them all that well by conventional, social standards.

“I had the opportunity to watch John [McEnroe] play a lot of matches,” said Laver. "We never played against each other, but I think the feeling is like we’re good friends. We haven’t really been close enough for him to think of myself as being a friend, so it’s a unique situation you have with tennis players.”

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The Laver Cup, conceived at Federer’s behest to honor the Rocket, will pit a European team and World team against each other in a format mixing singles and doubles over three days:

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Team Europe
*Bjorn Borg—Captain

Thomas Enqvist—Vice Captain*

[1] Rafael Nadal

[2] Roger Federer

[4] Alexander Zverev

[5] Marin Cilic

[7] Dominic Thiem

[19] Tomas Berdych

Team World
*John McEnroe—Captain

Patrick McEnroe—Vice Captain*

[16] Sam Querrey

[17] John Isner

[20] Nick Kyrgios

[21] Jack Sock

[24] Juan Martin del Potro

[51] Denis Shapovalov

It will take place annually except in years in which there is a Summer Olympics. Teams comprise the four top-ranked players plus two captain’s picks.

The promise the Laver Cup holds for fans is, plain and simple, entertainment. But there’s also something extra for the players. By coming together in a team format with colleagues with whom they normally wouldn’t join forces, there’s the opportunity for that precious camaraderie to flourish, for players to learn about each other and the game they share the same way that other, more conventional professionals learn at, say, conferences and seminars.

Case in point: The Laver Cup format allows for some tantalizing doubles pairings, including Federer and Nadal, and the two men seem primed to play together.

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When Federer was asked about the already-taxing tennis schedule and any anticipated difficulty attracting players to participate in the Laver Cup. Federer shrugged it off—and judging by the loaded roster, rightfully so.

“I see this as a no-brainer for players, wanting to be a part of it. Why not spend an interesting, cool, fun weekend with all of the best players in the world, with those kind of captains?”

It was a bookend to Laver’s opening remark that, “Any of the top players, if they’re available, I personally want them to be there.”

Listening to Laver and Federer wax philosophical, there was a sense that they know something about finding contentment in the trenches of professional tennis, and that it resides, at least in part, from communing with the people with whom they share the court. They became, by most people’s estimation, the two greatest male players in history with this outlook; what does the rest of the field have to lose?  The worst thing that happens is they spend, in Federer’s words, “an interesting cool, fun weekend with the best players in the world.”

Maybe, one wonders, that’s how he’s always looked at the Tour. Maybe he’s been playing his own private Laver Cup all along.