Laver Cup - A mixed reception for now, only time can tell
The inaugural Laver Cup (LC) in Prague had its excitement, with its events, promotional activities and certainly Tennis. The lineup of the best known names in Men’s Tennis made it a celebrity assembly, not only on court, but all over Prague. The event's scoring system added a sense of suspense towards the outcome until the last day. It was a novelty. Prague did have its excitement, but it did not grip the world as expected. In fact, away from Prague, the LC gave a sense of countering the validity of the century-old Davis Cup (DC).
Addition or Subtraction?
The main opposition now for the DC is from the top ranked professionals, and it is all about their discomfort accommodating it into their annual 10-month long schedule. The question is, accommodating professionalism was never the reason for the DC, when it began in 1900. For 117 years the DC has carried Tennis through leaner times, and taken the game to grassroot levels worldwide. Leaner times could return, then, what will happen to Tennis without the DC? Especially, at grassroot levels.
True, there should be events other than DC. The ground for those should be for a ‘Tennis reason’. the DC made Tennis to be understood globally. It was the dream Dwight Davis had when he started it in 1900. Now, commercially oriented events are popping up, which could undermine the flagship of Tennis; the DC. This places a question. Was making Tennis Open to accommodate professionals in 1969 a mistake, for the continuity of global Tennis?
Changes to scoring
In the LC, most of the changes to the scoring were external, and not the need of the game. The most prominent change was the introduction of TieBreak as the 3rd Set. It is widely accepted the it was to accommodate the TV time restriction. One segment said the LC scoring was to finish the matches in time, which abbreviated the game of Tennis. This abbreviation took away the original sporting values and norms of Tennis.
Recent changes have been more to accommodate the top 200 players in the world. The game is played by nearly 800 million. That is one- tenth of the world’s population, and to them, there is no TV time pressure. I believe the LC was designed to pitch the Titans on an exhibition platform. Here, they succeeded.
Why Europe alone?
The LC is between Europe and the Rest of the world. One has only to look at the number of events in the WTA and ATP calendar to understand why. Most of the events are in Europe. Even the mass of best players are from Europe. The cold Scandinavian and Baltic States have their indoors to play Tennis now. It is in Europe that Tennis or, its forerunner ‘Royal Tennis’, was promoted as a court game, a good few centuries before the modern version began in England. For this ‘ Royal’ namesake Tennis is still played on a ‘Court’.
The format of the LC is widely accepted to be in line with Ryder Cup of Golf. As for Tennis, it has to prove its validity. After Prague not much can be said for its validity, but to be a private commercial venture of good players. An area that could be termed as sports management, than sport promotion. It is speculated that good players received 6- figure sums in dollars as appearance money, to play in the LC.
The world Rankings did not always have players of this strength and depth of today. What we see now is not the norm in Tennis, but an exception. This strength in depth is what is making Tennis popular now. Every sport has this inevitable wave in popularity. In the history of sports, prominent events had more appeal and lasted more than the players.
On this count, many say the LC is about money. To be precise, ‘ close to retirement’ money. Only time will prove as to what the LC is, and its worthiness. The venue for the 2018 LC will be Boston, USA. It is a canny selection, more in line with the managerial skills of corporate ventures.
Davis Cup and Laver Cup
Prior to 1969, there was a rift between Professional Tennis and Tennis, which meant ‘ amateur Tennis’. Professionals found it to be advantageous for Tennis to be Open in the ' 50s and ' 60s. Rod Laver was one player who rallied successfully for Open Tennis. He is the first and the last to win the Grand Slam of the Open era. It is coincidental that his name is appearing again in what seems as the ‘rift of Tennis’, 50 years later.
While the LC design is for mega cities of the world, the DC takes the game to the remotest regions of the world. A possibility the LC design may not ever have. The ideal would be a marriage between the two, to avoid a rift.