A question I never thought would be worthy of GM, but the day has come.
YonaMX
41 - 59 of 59 Posts
Joined
·
16,845 Posts
Hopman Cup is not and has never been an exhibition tournament.
Lol they're not mutually exclusive buddy, Laver Cup is a great addition to DC, and I think there should be more team competitions like this
Joined
·
31,251 Posts
Hopman Cup is weird as it is ITF sanctioned I think but I don't think wins there count as tour level wins — I count that as a semi-exho where Laver Cup probably sits in too.
I've always considered the Australian Hopman Cup as almost 100% professional while the same can't be said about Laver Cup.
Joined
·
31,251 Posts
Joined
·
16,845 Posts
The points awarded by the ATP do not determine whether an event is an exhibition or not.
Except for a few seasons, the Davis Cup (long an very important event of the season) and, more recently, the OG did not award points, now.
Until 1990, neither did the Masters.
Neither did the World Team Cup in Düsseldorf (end 1970s, early 2010s), before RG, and none of them were exhibitions.
Laver cup is a pretty random event, with seemingly random players participating. Why is Sinner not playing? He also didn't play last year. Djokovic hasn't played as well. Why is Opelka, world #62 playing? If there must be at least three Americans, there others with higher ranking that could have played. It's also indoor, during the weird still-outdoor-hard-until-Shanghai season. The point system, designed to make sure that the winning team is only decided on the 3rd day, makes the first day matches relatively meaningless.
In Davis cup (and Olympics) you're representing your nation, which is something else. I doubt anyone cares about representing "Team World" or "Team Europe".
Joined
·
16,845 Posts
I'm not disputing that, my point here is to clarify that the points awarded by ATP do not determine what is an exhibition or not, hence the examples I cite.
Neither of the Laver Cup team are really any sort of logical teams. The initial Laver Cup setup could be described as an attempt to see Big3/Big4 vs the rest of the tour, But with 2/3rd/3/4th of them retired, that ship has sailed. They could please MTF trolls that like to group players based on age (under 25 vs over 25), but what I would like to see is 'grand slam champions' vs the rest. That way, players have to earn their right to switch from the also rans to the elite team, rather than being completely based on where or when they were born.
Joined
·
1,251 Posts
Lol what. Who would you even get on the grand slam champions team? Sinner, Alcaraz, Medvedev, Djokovic... Cilic?.... Wawrinka? The latter three probably wouldn't play though
Joined
·
30,276 Posts
Maybe it's not an official exhibition, but it is one de-facto. The deciding-set rule in it aren't even like in the rest of the singles tournaments.
But if it bothers you, change the title to "Which of these two events do you prefer?".
Joined
·
2,861 Posts
what about "low-stake tournaments" instead of exhibitions?
It could also work, I guess.
Joined
·
30,276 Posts
Done.
Joined
·
58,963 Posts
played it like they had no pressure overall, a good tactic.
Joined
·
58,963 Posts
Great venue, relaxed atmosphere, and the mixed pairings (WTA/ATP) made for some interesting and lighthearted viewing.
There were some really good matches too at times for both men and women.
You would agree that describing them as "pointless" is factually accurate, no?
41 - 59 of 59 Posts
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
