The inaugural edition of the Laver Cup is still months away, from its September scheduling, but its promotions have started in earnest, led by none other than Roger Federer.
In a promotional event held in the host city of Prague on Monday, the 18-time Grand Slam champion discussed his ideas and expectations regarding the tournament, which has been inspired by the Ryder Cup in golf that pits the best players from Europe and the USA as part of competing teams, rather than the individual players themselves.
“The idea is to absolutely have a tough tournament, tough matches, [that] the better man wins, that’s the idea of the Laver Cup,” Federer mentioned, as if drawing a finer line between the other existing exhibition events and his brain-child, which will be played each year – with the exception of the years in which the Summer Olympics will be held – with Europe and the USA exchanging hosting duties every year.
It’s an interesting difference to be maintained, for the Laver Cup format doesn’t alter the rules of the game unlike how the IPTL and Fast4 have tweaked them, ostensibly to draw out the players and crowds. The IPTL features the 20-second shot clock, and has no let serve or ad-scoring, the Fast4 – conceptualised by Tennis Australia – has reduced the number of games in a set to four, from the normative six.
Players in the Laver Cup, however, will play best-of-three sets, with an ad-point after deuce instead of a deciding point. The third set will, however, be a super-tie-break, with the player or team first to reach 10 points with a points’ difference of two claiming the set, and essentially the win in the match.
While, the Laver Cup doesn’t offer any addition by way of points to the ATP Tour, and will feature only the six best players – four of whom, who will be selected on the basis of their ATP ranking – it’s getting its point across for being the most adaptive tennis tournament, catering to the demand of the present crop of the sport’s audiences to institute a change in its overall functioning.
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