The Laver Cup

A few weeks after the US Open, tennis fans will see today in the early evening the birth of a new tournament.  Also called the Ryder Cup of tennis, the Laver Cup pits the best of Europe against the best of the world in a 3-day indoor hardcourt tournament.  The best golfers from America hit the greens versus the Europeans in the Ryder Cup.

Named after Australian tennis legend Rod Laver, this tournament was created by a group composed of Roger Federer’s management company TEAM8, the USTA, Tennis Australia and Brazilian-Swiss billionaire Jorge Paulo Lemann.  The group has Rolex as founding partner with JP Morgan and Mercedes Benz as world sponsors.

Lemann is on the world’s top 30 wealthiest with an estimated net worth in excess of $30 billion. He’s no stranger to tennis as during his younger years, he won the Brazilian national tennis championships five times and played for Brazil and Switzerland in the Davis Cup.

The tournament is to be played every year except during Olympic years, two weeks after the end of the US Open.  Tonight’s inaugural game will be held in Prague, Czech Republic at the O2 Arena.  Next year’s will be at the US and will rotate locations every year in major cities of Europe and the US.

Team Europe and Team World will have six players each and they will play a total of 12 games – nine singles and three doubles.  The first four team members are based on the ATP rankings after Wimbledon and the remaining two are picked by the team captains after the US Open.

All matches (singles and doubles) are best of three and if it goes to a third set, it will be decided with a 10-point tie breaker.  Each team member will play at least once but no more than twice in the singles and at least four members will have to play in the doubles.

The big four of tennis are Europeans – Rafael Nadal, Federer, Andy Murray and Alexander Zverev.  With the exception of Milos Raonic, Kei Nishikori and Kevin Anderson, 12 Euro players are on the top 15.  Team World is the heavy underdog but as in all sports, anything can happen.

Team Europe has Federer and Nadal as teammates together with Alexander Zverev, Marin Cilic, Dominic Theim and Tomas Berdych.  Had Murray and Novak Djokovic been healthy, it would have been the top six against the world.  Team captain is tennis legend Bjorn Borg.

Captained by the original tennis bad boy John McEnroe, Team World has Sam Querrey, John Isner, Nick Kygios, Jack Sock, Denis Shapovalov and Frances Tiafoe.  Likewise because of injury, Raonic and Juan Martin del Potro pulled out of the tournament.

Surely, a Rafa-Roger doubles team up is anticipated but it all depends on the decision of Borg.  Opponents would simply wish they won’t contend with this pair and hope Borg will not push with the dream tandem.  On the other hand, all these guys on both teams are great singles players but a big adjustment will be made in a doubles game so we could possibly also be seeing some missteps.  They had never played together with any of their teammates and it would be fun seeing them high fiving each other after a point.  Whatever, a Rafa-Roger pair is one for the ages.

Each match won tonight is equivalent to one point.  Tomorrow’s winners will get two points, winners on the final day get three points.  The Laver Cup trophy goes to the team who gets to 13 points.  In the event of a 12-12 tie, a decider will be played.

Borg and McEnroe, who will be captains for the first three years of the tournament, will announce their first picks for tonight which will have two singles matches in the day session and a single and a doubles match in the evening session.  Schedules for the next two days will follow a similar pattern where the captains will announce their players for the day and night sessions.

As per TV ads, Fox Sports will air the games live.  Missing this one quickie tournament will be a mortal sin for tennis buffs.