#no one asked for novak to come because we had fedal already but he did! he did and he made that change

[rafasbiscuits]

I hope no one ever breaks their record for anything <3

there will be nothing like the big 3 ever again and i hope it stays that way actually

[youreamonocoque]

The Laver Cup Makeover

The Laver Cup, a chance to see the best of Europe face the best that the rest of the world has to offer. Watch the best play the best. Exciting right? Who wouldn’t want to see Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal team up to take on the rest of the world? Who wouldn’t be interested in seeing the best players all at one event?

Er me?

Don’t get me wrong the first year in 2017 was very exciting! With Team Europe consisting of legends of the sport Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. Exciting youngsters Alexander Zverev and Dominic Thiem and seasoned pros in Marin Cilic and Tomas Berdych. To top all of that off they were captained by Swedish icon Bjorn Borg. And what about Team World? Well captained by the ever-lively John McEnroe they had a whole heap of American talent in John Isner, Sam Querrey, Jack Sock and Frances Tiafoe. The Quartet were joined by the entertainer – Nick Kyrgios and up and coming Denis Shapovalov.

5 of the Worlds Top 10 in one place? Sign me up that sounds exhilarating! For the most part the matches were, most of them went to ranking but they were filled with high class points, and it was a fantastic showcase for the doubles where you got a ‘Fedal’ Team Up, thrilling stuff.

Team Europe won the event in 2017 (As you’d expect) 15 points to 9. While at the time it was very exciting, part of that was due to the newness of it all. You’ve got the best players in the world playing in one city in this ‘exclusive’ team event. However, did I mention that 5 of the Top 10 were all on one team? And given that I mentioned that Team Europe won the event can you take a wild stab at which team those 5 were on? Yeah…

What about 2018? Well Europe’s average world ranking was 7 and World’s was 19. Do you want to guess the winner? (Spoiler alert: Europe won 13-8). 2019 reads similarly, Europe average of 5 and World average of 57 (Jack Sock brings the average down by quite a bit, at the time he was ranked 210). Amazingly the 2019 edition was the closest yet with a notable upset being Jack Sock against Fabio Fognini. Furthermore 2 out of 3 of the doubles matches went to Team World. “Great it’s working then…why do we need a makeover?”

Well, you see we arrive in 2021 and as usual we have our teams and as per tradition Team Europe is packed with players in the Top 10. No Rafa or Roger or Novak but still 5 of the top 10 have snuck in. “Is this balanced out by some exciting lower ranked youngster being the sixth player?” Ah well, the sixth is an exciting youngster! Hooray! The Youngster just happens to be Casper Ruud who is currently ranked 11th in the world. “Oh.” Yeah…That gives us an average ranking of 6!

“Yeah, but you said only 5 of the top 10 are in Team Europe, what about Team World?”

They do have a top 10 player! They’ve got Denis Shapovalov who is ranked at 10! Yay! He’s also the only guy outside of ‘Europe’ ranked in the top 10.

“Wait why did you put ‘Europe’?”

Okay a question for you, dear reader, this time. Russia – Europe or Not? If you pop that question into Google, you end up with ‘Russia is a transcontinental country. 77% of Russia’s area is in Asia, the western 23% of the country is in Europe.’ (Source: nationsonline.org). I’m going to be honest; I have no idea what my answer to that question would be other than part of it is in Europe and part of it is not. The Laver Cup obviously considers the Russians as part of Europe as that is who Medvedev and Rublev are down to play for.

“That’s fine, isn’t it?”

Yep! Except this is where our make over begins! Move the Russians into Team World and you end up with 3 of the Top 10 in Team World and 3 of the Top 10 in Team Europe. Oh boy look at the balance! Now you’ll get exciting matches such as Daniil Medvedev against Stefanos Tsitsipas. World Number 2 against World Number 3. Not Medvedev against Isner for the fifteenth time…

Moving on! Hmm I think 3 top 10 players is okay for now, but we might come back to that…For now we’ll limit the teams to only being allowed three top 10 players. Now our teams look like this:

Stefanos Tsitsipas (3), Alexander Zverev (5), Matteo Berrettini (8) and Casper Ruud (11) for Team Europe. Two places to fill.

Daniil Medvedev (2), Andrey Rublev (7), Denis Shapovalov (10), Diego Schwartzman (14), Felix Auger-Aliassime (17) for Team World with one place to fill.

The ATP tour is all about the ‘Next Gen’ we’ve even got the Next Gen Finals that take place In Milan. How about we get some of those exciting Next Gen players in the Laver Cup? Start preparing our next superstars?

“Sounds good? Who?”

Well leading the race for Milan is Jannik Sinner, 20 years old, three titles to his name already (all won when he was 19), ranked 15 in the world, Incredible young talent. Oh, and he’s Italian so we’ll put him in Team Europe. After him is Auger-Aliassime who is already on Team World, so we move on to Sebastian Korda. American, 21 years old, 1 career title, ranking of 45. Let’s pop him in as the final member of Team World.

We have one place left in Team Europe. Would you like a Spanish guy or an Italian guy?

“Er got any more information?”

Sure! First up for your (well my…sorry you can have your say in the comments) consideration is Lorenzo Musetti of Italy. 19 years old, current ranking of 61 with a career high of 58, Reached the fourth round at the French Open this year, beat Diego Schwartzman in Acapulco earlier this year…Does that name ring a bell? Yeah, he’s on Team World!

“And the Spanish guy?”

Carlos Alcaraz, 18 years old and already has a title to his name with a career high ranking of 54, a third-round appearance at the French Open, no wins over the Top 10 yet but we’ll put that down to him being 18, shall we? Very exciting young player.

“I don’t have a say really?”

Nope so we’re going with Alcaraz because Team Europe is lacking in the Spanish department.

“We have our teams then great!”

Team Europe – Tsitsipas, Zverev, Berrettini, Ruud, Sinner and Alcaraz. Average ranking of 16.

Team World – Medvedev, Rublev, Shapovalov, Schwartzman, Auger-Aliassime and Korda. Average ranking of 15.

Oh, we are balanced! Look at that! Team World looking pretty good there, some tight matches, interesting doubles pairs. I’m fairly content with that but-

“Uh oh there’s a ‘but’”

Is Team World looking a bit…? North American? 3/6? I’m just saying that the other side of the globe is there…de Minaur? Nishikori? Kwon? Kyrgios? Ah we’ll leave it as it is for now. But there’s something up with Team Europe…A certain German…Let’s quietly remove him and bring in Pablo Carreno Busta. That does mess with the average ranking a little bit taking it down to 17. We could switch out Auger-Aliassime for Alex de Minaur bringing World’s average down to 16 but I don’t think a difference of two in average ranking is too much to be concerned about.

There we have our teams then. We don’t necessarily have star power like the Big 3 but we have 5 of the Top 10, an Olympic gold medallist, an Olympic bronze medallist and several entertaining youngsters. I suppose we could bring in the star power in some capacity…Bjorn Borg and Roger Federer as Co Captains? Agassi and McEnroe against them? I don’t know but we need some draw for the crowds that they’re going to get to see at least one of the Big 3.

I haven’t completely overhauled the teams, most players that are going to play in the actual Laver Cup have been included in my team lists but that is partly because Team World are yet to announce the rest of their team. I have a horrible feeling that it’ll be fleshed out with three Americans and Africa and Asia will once again be ignored. I’m not saying I fixed that by moving the Russians into Team World, but it would be nice if they could include Kei Nishikori or Yoshihito Nishioka from Japan or Lloyd Harris from South Africa. Personally, I’d also like it to be a mixed event with the best of the women’s tour coming to play but I think I might be asking for a bit much there.

I’ll leave you with my teams then:

Europe – Co Captained by Roger Federer and Bjorn Borg.

World – Co Captained by Andre Agassi and John McEnroe.

Stefanos Tsitispas (3)

Matteo Berrettini (8)

Casper Ruud (11)

Pablo Carreno Busta (12)

Jannik Sinner (15)

Carlos Alcaraz (54)

Bye!

Daniil Medvedev (2)

Andrey Rublev (7)

Denis Shapovalov (10)

Diego Schwartzman (14)

Felix Auger-Aliassime (17)

Sebastian Korda (45)