Did Roger Federer Influence ATP to Include Laver Cup?

Published 06/16/2019, 8:06 AM EDT

Follow Us

via Imago

The Laver Cup event of tennis, where the European men team up to play against the rest of the world was inspired from golf’s Ryder Cup. It was considered to be one of the exhibition events of tennis, but now, the ATP Tour announced Laver Cup to be an official part of ATP World Tour Calendar and no rankings points will be awarded to the contestants.

The creators of the event are Roger Federer‘s management company, TEAM8, Tennis Australia and a few others. The CEO of Tennis Australia and the tournament director of Australian Open, Craig Tiley once said, “Roger Federer is a once-in-a-generation player widely regarded as one of the biggest ‘box office’ athletes in the world”.

Clearly, by introducing Federer into such a project attracts more tennis fans which promote the event. The Laver Cup getting the ATP tag would definitely increase its prestige. Federer’s fanbase and the ATP trademark, with everything coming together would attract more audience and viewership all around the world and hence generating a lucrative income.

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

It can relatable to the footballer, Gerard Pique stepping in for Davis Cup and using his fame to promote the event. The ATP Board accepting Laver Cup into its calendar could be because of the revenue which the tournament generates, and that would benefit them in return.

via Imago

Initially, when Laver Cup was introduced it was formatted as a leisure event for the ATP men. There isn’t any formal practice to select the players who participate in the Laver Cup. For instance, in the ATP Finals, the top eight men (according to their ATP rankings) feature in the event, but at Laver Cup, there isn’t any transparent system to decided upon the players who are participating.

In general, the top-ranked players are incorporated in both the teams, but covertly the organisers are involved in the selection process of the players. The European team of Laver Cup 2019 involves, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Alexander Zverev, Dominic Thiem, Fabio Fognini and the sixth player is yet to be decided. 

Over the past two editions of Laver Cup, the event was regarded as an exhibition event, as and when ATP Board and Laver Cup shook hands, the head to head statistics amongst the ATP men were updated by taking in the results of Laver Cup over the past two years.

At present, the results from 2017 are updated in the ATP records and the statistics of 2018 are still under process. While participating in the event, the players regarded it to be an exhibition match and later, their results were retroactively included in the head to head statistics. This is unacceptable.

The Laver Cup has now become the part of ATP Tour, and no ranking points are given but head to head statistics are considered. This format is similar to that of Olympics, but the Olympic tennis is deemed to be the fifth Slam of the sport and playing for the nation on the Olympics court is incomparable to any other events in tennis.

via Imago

The third set at Olympics follows the same trend as the other ATP events (earlier it was following the best-of-five format similar to the one at Grand Slams) and at Laver Cup, the third set follows a ten-pointer tiebreaker format to decide the outcome of the match. This factor nullifies the ATP label on Laver Cup.

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

Moreover, during Olympics Games, there isn’t any clash between the ATP tournaments and the tennis matches at Olympics, but however, during the three-day event of Laver Cup, which takes place two weeks after the US Open there are ATP tournaments coinciding with it. And hence the prestigious Olympics not having ranking points and the ATP still taking the head to head statistics into the account is not a matter of debate.

Also, the capital invested by ATP in the Laver Cup could be used for the challenger events or the other minor tournaments on the tour by increasing the prize money of the participants over there and that would consequently encourage young tennis players to show up on big tennis courts.

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

In a nutshell, including the Laver Cup (which just last for three days) in the ATP circuit for financial gain is simply a misgoverned system. Roger Federer and the other creators of the event urged for the Laver Cup to get an ATP status. 

The ATP has given a justification that while officiating their partnership, they decided to incorporate the previous records not the just ones from 2019 onwards, but retroactively updating the head to head records from an event which was supposed to be an exhibition tournament and the crew to persuade such an act is undisclosed. This is simply disgraceful for the tennis world.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE :

Written by:

Mahalakshmi Murali

1,909Articles

One take at a time

Mahalakshmi Murali joined EssentiallySports in 2018 as a tennis author and has gone on to pen more than 1800 engaging articles, probing into various aspects of the sport and its illustrious players. With her expertise on the sport, Mahalakshmi has interviewed stalwarts from the sport such as Serena WIlliams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou and Kevin Anderson’s physio, Carlos Costa. Equipped with her vast experience and a keen understanding of the sport, Mahalakshmi now co-heads the tennis department.
Show More>