What do you get when you throw in Laver, Borg, McEnroe, Nadal and Federer- A masterpiece. Exactly a masterpiece something which the tennis world has never seen come September 2017 the biggest showpiece in Tennis will come to life.
To put the record straight, from the September of 2017 will begin the Laver Cup named after the 11 time Grand slam winner Australia’s Rod Laver. It will be a Europe v/s rest of the world competition. Played on the lines of the Ryder Cup, where Golfers of USA face off against Europe’s pros.
Its not just the idea of competition which is making the headlines but the players involved, the teams and how the competition will be played is making tennis fans over the world going crazy. Just to spill the beans the European team will be captained by Bjorn Borg and for the World team it will his arch rival John McEnroe. The two have a history of giving us some of the most memorable tennis matches. it was their on court rivalry which defined tennis of their time for the current generation to see them back against each other trying to outwit each other will be a flash back.
For those already swooning its just the beginning for having grown up watching the Roger-Rafa rivalry I have always thought how would be it like to see them playing together in the same team a doubles match with Nadal belting his forehands from the baseline and Roger using his deaf touches and playing his brilliant net game. This could soon turn into reality for both have confirmed their respective participation in the Laver Cup, Federer is in fact one of the promoter of the tournament. Both coming from Europe Nadal from Spain and Federer from Switzerland will be in the same team. Borg, Nadal and Federer can it get any better, unbelievably yes it can. The top two seeded players in the world Serbia’s World No 1 Novak Djokovic and Britain’s Andy Murray could also be in the same team given both are from Europe and the format of the tournament selects a team from the highest ranked ATP players. Though both are yet to confirm their participation but given how much mutual respect tennis players have for each other it wont be difficult to bring them on board.
The tournament format is a six on six team excluding the captains, four automatic spots on each team will be filled through the leading ATP singles rankings following Wimbledon with the captains adding two other captains’ picks after the US Open to round out the six-man teams.
The scales are tipped in favor of team Europe with Europeans holding the top five spots in the rankings and 13 of the top 15 place, but McEnroe much like in his playing days is not to be bogged down by odds. He is optimistic and as per him a lot can change over a year. He has to his disposal a certain Juan Martin Del Porto, the Argentinean who is making a comeback and is the only one with a Grand Slam to his name outside the Europeans. Then there is the marathon man John Isner, and Japan’s Kei Nishikori who is fresh from his Olympic Bronze medal win over Rafael Nadal. The rest of the world team may not boost of big names but they could very well gel as a team and as McEnroe said could very well cause an upset.
The inaugural Laver Cup will kick off in Sept. 22-24, 2017, at the O2 Arena in Prague, on indoor hard courts, though its still more than an year away, the very idea and the lineups are making the tennis fans go bonkers.