Laver Cup, Davis Cup, ATP Cup: what's left? Who has to give way?
The fourth edition of the Laver Cup is history, the third of the ATP Cup is scheduled for the beginning of next year. In between, the final tournament in the Davis Cup will be held. Can it go on like this?
by Jens Huiber
last edit:
Sep 30, 2021, 06:34 am
If Novak Djokovic still sent printed letters and did the same to big football clubs and noted his greatest successes in the letterhead, then there would also be victories with Serbia in the Davis Cup and the ATP Cup, maybe the triumph with Team Europe at the Laver Cup 2018 noted in Chicago. However, you shouldn't bet a lot of money on the fact that the best player in the world will top it off in team competitions in the near future. For various reasons.
First of all, there is the final tournament in the Davis Cup, the first phase of which for Serbia begins in Innsbruck. Djokovic and Co. have been drawn into a group with Austria and Germany. The anticipation for a summit meeting of the top specialists Djokovic, Alexander Zverev and Dominic Thiem was great. As of now, none of the three named will probably hit Innsbruck. Thiem is injured, Djokovic and Zverev are not in the mood for the appointment at the end of November. In addition, the German number one doesn't like the format.
Can the Davis Cup survive without the best players in the world? Hardly likely. At the premiere in Madrid two years ago, Djokovic allowed himself to be persuaded to start. The grandstands were only full at the matches between the Spaniards and Rafael Nadal, who then won the title. But he will also be missing this year due to an injury.
Medvedev, Zverev, Tsitsipas 2022 in London
The Laver Cup would have the advantage of only being played over a long weekend, even if the teams had already trained hard in the days before the start of the matches. Novak Djokovic skipped this year, why exactly was not discussed. The relationship with Roger Federer, on whose idea the Laver Cup is based, is known to be not the best, but perhaps the focus was only strictly on the (Golden) Grand Slam.
The event in Boston kept the fans well entertained despite the superiority of the European guests. And maybe Daniil Medvedev , Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas have now built up so much reputation that the youngsters carry the event. In the coming year we will go to London in the O2 Arena, which has been spoiled for more than a decade with the ATP Finals with top tennis. The comparison of attractiveness with the Davis Cup final would currently be in favor of the Laver Cup, the proper date helps.
Djokovic wins the premiere of the ATP Cup with Serbia
But when it comes to scheduling a competition, the ATP Cup is undefeated, although it has only been held twice. In 2020 the premiere became a party, thanks in part to Novak Djokovic and the many Serbian fans. A year later, the participants came almost directly from quarantine, and the games were played exclusively in Melbourne in front of a sparse backdrop. Which was a lot less fun.
The prospects for issue three are persistently unclear, it has not yet been determined under which conditions the players will be allowed to enter Australia at the end of 2021 or the beginning of the new year. If you had to make a forecast for the future, the ATP Cup will attract the most attractive field of participants in the future. And thus also have the best cards for a long survival.