The Laver Cup

I don’t think I’ve ever come across a bigger pile of garbage than this nonsense. The affected tension just adds to the sense of absurdity.

This phoney event is obviously a waste of time, but I did find this genuinely funny:



An extended video with subtitles was taken down, Nadal had earlier told Fognini ‘hit to his backhand, trust me he will definitely miss’, and in this clip he says ‘just make him play, if he keeps hitting big forehands it’s fine we’ll all go home.’

Foggy scared of these 2 coaches hitting on him at same time 

Guess this Lever CupHolder is some legacy tournament left from Fed before he retires and since it got a proper ATP value now, it's gonna stay for good in the Calendar.

Ignoring tennis, I think its a good way for people to see top world players once a year on a friendly mood.

I think this year was entertaining

Some good matches this year, especially doubles Kyrgios vs Nadal, Thiem vs Shapo, Fed vs Kyrgios.

Nadal scared of Kyrgios so he called it a day yesterday to avoid him.

The bench support was over the top sometimes from team players, but matches have been properly good.

Just a further travesty in what is a slow demise of the Davis Cup. The Laver Cup really is just a rip off of the Ryder Cup and it isn't something that I will be investing time to watch.

Firstly, why did it take the Davis Cup so long to decide on change of the format? Many former and exciting pro's bemoaned the scheduling element and the Davis Cup could've easily been more proactive and responsive to those challenges the players faced. It's sad to see a tournament steeped in history about to become devalued further. 

Secondly the players themselves need to take part of the blame. Many of the top players in recent times haven't given it the full attention it does deserve but also they have seen it as 'cheap' trophy. Take Murray and Federer for example of 2 players who became very invested in the tournament when the opportunity of success was very high and both cashed in. They treat at their own convenience. The tournament whilst revelling in the appearance of the game's biggest names, never really tried to enhance the importance of the tournament and this is reflected in the players attitude to it. 

Thirdly, will the ultimate demise of the Davis Cup be the wake up call the sport needs in terms of reflection on how the sport can move with the times and save itself before participation and competition levels start to drop off?

Time will tell no doubt.

It's nice and fun but so is a Mansoor Bahrami / Henry Le Cunt doubles match and I take it just as seriously. I just wince seeing them all getting excited like they just won a Slam.

Yesterday was funny again, it was obviously rigged to it went down to the super tie break in the deciding match between Zverev and Raonic.

As Zverev headed down to the locker room, Nadal and Federer both followed him to give him advice.
Nadal 'no, negative thoughts, you are playing at high level keep focused' and then Federer backed Nadal up with a barrage of swear words 'after every point you win I want you to say let's fucking go, and even if you play a shit point just fucking move on'.
They had to cut and go back to showing audience and commentators apologised for Roger's language. Good fun

@legendkiller

I share some of your frustrations over Davis Cup, it's a tournament with great history that is being devalued.
I don't like the fact it's being turned into a world cup at one particular venue, the best thing about it was the crazy atmosphere because one of the teams were always at home.

By the way, I didn't mind too much that we didn't always have the top guys playing the final. All year, in Masters and Slams we see the same match ups again and again, it was actually a nice change to have, for example, Del Potro vs Cilic playing in such a high pressure match (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/38124063)