icedevil0289
G.O.A.T.
i know!! tbh i actually loved last year just as much with novak there
Laver Cup
- Thread starter prairiegirl
- Start date
i know!! tbh i actually loved last year just as much with novak there
oldmanfan
Legend
Mandatory:
Team Europe: Fedr/Z
Team World: Sock/Nick/Isner, (Sock/Nick, Sock/Isner are scary doubles)
Team World will always have a chance with that line up.
icedevil0289
G.O.A.T.
tbh i feel like they ight just end up picking a lot of the same people, but i could see mac picking rafa, he likes him a lot, which would put rafa and nick on the same team assuming john picked him and not borg, it would be interesting to see those two on a team ngl.
icedevil0289
G.O.A.T.
oh god but sock/isner annoy me so much, isner for non tennis reasons and i s2g sock was photo bombing all the interviews it was annoying. atleast nick provided some interesting bits with his "coaching" and insights.
i know i said it this year and by the time it got to it at the end i was like **** sascha win this, but i do feel like world need it next year.
oldmanfan
Legend
Yes, the rule 'could' be changed, but it's not really needed. And in this case, the Mac brothers were being nonsensical. Why?
1) Rafa not playing is a HUGE boon for them.
2) They ended winning BOTH matches that Rafa was supposed to play (and Rafa has more than 50% chance of winning both).
3) Bc of shoulder issues, they were gonna pull Nick from play regardless, so why the complaint?!?
4) And as Thomas Enqvist said, this is a gentleman's agreement. LC is a celebration of tennis, and the Macs are trying to make it controversial. Again, the w/d HELPED them. I mean, if they had a choice, would they rather face Fedal doubles + Nadl singles, or Fed/Tsitsi doubles + Thiem singles?
icedevil0289
G.O.A.T.
They are undefeated LC champs, no?
Celebratory jumps:
i will admit i do have a soft spot for their relationship, idk i think its sweet. and yes, the fact that fed and sascha (well fed is expected) were the ones to play all 3 years and help bring it to victory plays a role.
fed looked so proud of sascha at the end, i honestly thought he was going to die during hte super tie break, he kept looking away and clinging to rafa like i cant watch this **** and im like ***** the irony here
oldmanfan
Legend
Laver Cup.
Where else can we get this kind of content!
icedevil0289
G.O.A.T.
tbh i was too busy looking at enqvist's beautiful face, the man looks good idec but i dont know what he meant by gentlman's agreement, sorry if that sounds dumb but this is where i guess sometimes i deviate from fed when it comes to his view of rules and tennis (i mean i support him in no coaching and all that ofc) but like i do believe some rules are meant to be re-evaluatedand looked at.
i think they said they would have just flipped their entire line up because basically they got 3 players and responded to those, and well if it was thiem, they would have maybe played raonic or isner, idk you are right i think they were just peeved because they were always on the backfoot so to speak. i do think they lost a bit of control, but i think in the world press conference john talked about how he understands that they cant play two people against each other again, but could have done isner against thiem, someone else against fed (idek who though on that team) and someone else against zverev.
tbh in hindsight i do know they were complaining mostly because they were pissy about again always being behind but i mean thank god fritz beat thiem in some ways because it would ahve been unbearable the whining.
icedevil0289
G.O.A.T.
Laver Cup.
Where else can we get this kind of content!
lol will sascha talk about tsisipas and his shoes any longer? was there a break in that friction, tsitsipas running to sascha first was hilarious. i still dont know if i like this better than 2018 or not, bot have their special moments. tbh 2017 was so far back that i pretty much forgot everything except fed winning it against nick and rafa nearly breaking his back. last year i enjoyed team euroope and their celerbations and mostly teh addition of grigor and chardy and hey i do like the angst of djokerer plus world had diego with them to bring more excitement. obviously this was more fedal biased so we got a lot of fedal coaching each other and the younger players, i think fedal ganging up on fognini and him being like um gtfo, fedal coaching each other, and then fedal coaching sascha were the highlights and ofcourse im ngl as a fed fan some of thsoe highlight shots he was able to produce in his match against nick. i also did enjoy coach nick, ngl i know thats probably a minority opinion and then i enjoyed tsitsipas surprisingly being so into it and fabio was amusing as well. i dont think fabio is getting an invite back though
oldmanfan
Legend
Agreed. A great bunch of highlights overall. I too don't think the Fog gets an invite for 2020. I think it's important to have 3-4 new members for each team the following year, to spice things up. Sure, it could turn out worse, but it could also turn out better. But the important thing is, it won't become stale with the same line up year after year. Just keeping the staple 2-3 players like they've done in the last 3 editions is fine (TE's Fedr/Z, TW's Sock/Nick/Isner).
As for the rules in case of a w/d, they can simply have a rule that when either team pulls out a player, the alternate is automatically subbed, full stop. This way, when they submit their line-ups, they know well ahead that it's always a possibility that any of the scheduled players could be replaced by the alternate. Simple, straight-forward, and no confusion like this year's Rafa/Nick w/d.
icedevil0289
G.O.A.T.
good point on the rule. im curious to know who was kind of bending the truth, pmac made it seem like they were told way later than they should have becuse they saw domi be the first one to practice but the way europe said in the presser, both from rafa and borg that rafa decided in the morning he couldnt play and as soon as that happened borg told mac so idk #whatisthetruth.
oldmanfan
Legend
The truth is probably in the middle. Once TE knew, they likely made a quick decision and told Thiem to go practice. They likely notified TW right away as well, but TW was just making a mountain out of a mole hill bc they were gonna do the SAME thing by pulling out Nick since he can't play.
JadeC
Hall of Fame
Lol. I don't think so either. I thought "any finger, you cross" was hilarious. Fed cursing like crazy to Alex before the STB too. Robbie Koenig had to apologize for Fed's "colorful" language, haha.
RBA probably won't get invited back again either, he was not very part of the group. I don't really remember him doing much.
Team World will most likely have Sock, Isner, and Kyrgios again for next year, and Team Europe will have Fed and Zverev. I would love to see the Big 3 all together, but I don't think that will happen.
ArcspacE
G.O.A.T.
He's a mug
ArcspacE
G.O.A.T.
Djok doesn't like such mug events
ArcspacE
G.O.A.T.
It's half fake, imv - next time they're up competing for mullion doubt it would be the same
oldmanfan
Legend
Kyrgios coaching Isner & Sock : "C'mon, no negative thoughts!"
He wants them all for himself?
clayqueen
Talk Tennis Guru
Kyrgios was doing a tribute act in honour of his secret idols, Fedal.Kyrgios coaching Isner & Sock : "C'mon, no negative thoughts!"
SystemicAnomaly
Bionic Poster
Y would either be on the other team? Both Spain and Serbia are in Europe... on my map anyway. Has plate techtonics moved them elswhere recently?
icedevil0289
G.O.A.T.
He played last year or was that a doppelganger
icedevil0289
G.O.A.T.
That is true i thought rba would be subbed in but tbh i didnt need to see any more of Thompson and that mustache
SystemicAnomaly
Bionic Poster
For those who are not ATP snobs, Wuhan (a P5 event) is happening. Naomi, Bianca and Serena not there but most of the other top 40 players are.
WTA-haters need not reply to this.
ArcspacE
G.O.A.T.
He's never played
icedevil0289
G.O.A.T.
yeah, i its unfortunate i think they could have made better use of rba, he seemed to enjoy himself like when they showed them in the locker room prepping for matches. i think he probably made himself the most useful being a hitting partner, which i guess is important too. unfortunately rba had big shoes to full because last year's alternate chardy was insane, dude was just as involved in these matches.
YourMajesty
New User
I would assume too, although the Europe / World borders have not been clearly defined in the Laver cup... IF Russia was World though, I'm pretty sure BigMac would have laid a lot of money to get Med in the team. He's been singing his praises for months!
YourMajesty
New User
I also thought it was funny that Fritz made it in, considering guys like Nishikori did not play (why?). I am not sure how BigMac chooses who plays and who doesn't. It seems he has a lot of freedom in just picking whoever he wants. It's clear Kyrgios and Sock are locks in this event, no matter how great or poorly they play throughout the year. BigMac said that Fritz called him and said he wanted play... That's interesting because his ranking and results have not been that great, but he still got in. That being said, I like Fritz and he showed great spirit out there. I was impressed by the way he played, and based on this performance he earned his place. So, I guess next year team World will be Kyrgios, Sock, Fritz... who else?
icedevil0289
G.O.A.T.
Kyrgios could be a good coach for Nick
lol to be honest in that federer match, i realized or maybe it was just a re-emphasis that he actually does have a good tennis mind, he was surprisingly the one in control of that match and i was screamin at my tv about roger who just kept playing the game Nick wanted but perhaps its because he doesnt have a coach that for the most part his tennis mind his strong when it wants to be. i was actually intrigued by his thoughts during the change overs and what he was telling fritz and john and whoever. i didnt really even care about jmac because he was just obnoxious but i feel like nick was the right amount of supportive and also amped up.
icedevil0289
G.O.A.T.
so my understanding is 3 are based on ranking, and 3 are captain's picks the only thing is its hard for team world to go down the list of ATP rankings, i assume you just approach the top world rankings and ask them and if they say yes, good, if not you move to the next, but with teh world you could be moving to say like no.10 to maybe no.30 idk. either way i was still on the edge of my seat during that last match knowing raonic could win it. this had to be the closest world has gotten to winnig
Winners or Errors
Legend
I like that Federer and the people he has behind him organizing this event chose to do it. It is fun tennis theater. Being on Amazon made it easy to tune in. Before the ATP got a stranglehold on the calendar, tennis had more "fun" in it. Laver Cup seems to bring some of it back. Team tennis also gives some players who struggle with being alone on tour some enjoyable moments. I hope it runs for years.
heninfan99
Talk Tennis Guru
Time to get rid of the McEnroes. Also, get some new players for World. A coach that can charm the Russians and Nishikori.
No, look again. He wasn't there yesterday
icedevil0289
G.O.A.T.
Honestly i get jmac because part of this is being sold as borg vs jmac but why his brother needs to tag along is beyond me. They can get another coach who is not American
icedevil0289
G.O.A.T.
ahh yeah you are right, i think it took a flight to china. now i cant remember if he was there for sascha's match or not? i know he wa there for fed because i distinctly remember seeing him in that pic with fed and his towel
icedevil0289
G.O.A.T.
christopher eubank's tweets on LC were great and amusing. his annoyance at TC cutting the coverage while a match was going on is something i can relate to. I switched between TC and amazon prime because prime kept going in and out (amazon you need to freaking fix that)
tacou
G.O.A.T.
? he did ask for it
icedevil0289
G.O.A.T.
to be fair they were basically 1 match away from doing it, if shapo actually converted his match points they would have won this. honestly him and raonic were major let downs.
YourMajesty
New User
Agreed. Why is little Pat brother always tagging along? I guess it's because big brother John has enough influence to impose his little baby brother in the USTA, in the Laver cup and god knows where else... Sometimes it's good to be related to someone famous, gets you places for the wrong reasons...
icedevil0289
G.O.A.T.
i'm already pissed at pmac in general when i think about taylor townsend and with her rise to the USO it just kind of reminded me of his ****ery and its like he was amazing in terms of player development imo.
clayqueen
Talk Tennis Guru
They didn't.
clayqueen
Talk Tennis Guru
No one picks Rafa. He is asked whether he would like to participate.
JadeC
Hall of Fame
Kei was asked to play, but he had scheduling conflicts. He actually withdrew from the Tokyo Open two days ago, so he most likely wouldn't play had he participated.
Like @icedevil0289 said, 3 players are chosen based on their rankings after the French Open, and the other 3 are captain's picks. I don't know the process for choosing the other 3 players. It seems for Team World, Sock, Isner, and Kyrgios will most likely be there again next year. I'm not certain about Fritz. Sure, he was a good part of the team, but there's truly a lack of diversity on that team. I mean, they had 3 Americans, 2 Canadians, and 2 Australians that is supposed to represent the world. All English speaking countries. I'd like for McEnroe to pick other guys.
