Carlos Alcaraz and Flavio Cobolli may be in Berlin this week primarily to play tennis, but that didn’t stop the ATP Tour stars from testing their football skills with some local experts on Wednesday afternoon.
Ahead of the 2024 Laver Cup in the German capital, Team Europe’s Alcaraz and Cobolli challenged members of Bundesliga team FC Union Berlin to a game of football and tennis at Uber Arena. Both tennis stars are big football fans: Alcaraz supports Spanish giant Real Madrid, while Italy’s Cobolli is a huge fan of AS Roma.
🎾 x ⚽️@carlosalcaraz and @cobollifla challenged members of @fcunion to a friendly competition.@LaverCup | #LaverCup | 📸: Getty Images pic.twitter.com/VbKTrXea5O
— ATP Tour (@atptour) September 18, 2024
Alcaraz and Cobolli also visited Berlin’s renowned East Side Gallery in its historic Friedrichshain district, where they swapped football jerseys and Team Europe jackets with their footballing counterparts. The representatives from FC Union Berlin included Head Coach Bo Svensson and co-trainers Babak Keyhanfar and Tijan Njie.
The No. 3 in the PIF ATP Rankings, Roland Garros and Wimbledon champion Alcaraz is the only Laver Cup debutant on Team Europe’s six-man roster at this year’s edition of the teams’ event. Cobolli is in Berlin as an alternate for captain Bjorn Borg’s team, which will take on the Team World roster captained by John McEnroe.