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[av_heading heading=’ FEEL THE GAME BOBBY MOTUS’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”][/av_heading]
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Monday. September 25, 2017
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Laver Cup: Europe’s best vs world’s best in tennis
TWO weeks after the US Open, tennis fans witnessed 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 three-day indoor hard court tournament. The best golfers from America hit the greens versus the Europeans in the Ryder Cup every two years.
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. 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. The inaugural game was held in Prague, Czech Republic at the O2 Arena. Next year’s edition will be in the United States 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 in the top 15. Team World is the heavy underdog but, as in all sports, anything can happen.
Team Europe had 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 Team World.
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 doubles 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.
(As of press time, Federer and Nadal have played as doubles partners for the first time on Day 2 of the Laver Cup – and beat Sam Querrey and Jack Sock 6-4 1-6 (10-5) to give Team Europe a 9-3 lead.—Ed.)
Each match won on Day 1 is equivalent to 1 point. Day 2 winners will get 2 points. Winners on the final day get 3 points. The Laver Cup trophy goes to the first team to reach 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, have announced their first picks for Day 1, which had two singles matches in the day session and a single and a doubles match in the evening session. Schedules in the next two days follow a similar pattern and the captains announce their players for the day and night sessions.
As per TV ads, Fox Sports is airing the games live. Missing this one quickie tournament will be a mortal sin for tennis buffs./PN
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