2018 Laver Cup - Analysis of the Match Tie-Breaks
Updated: Nov 26, 2019
The second Laver Cup, competed for between Team Europe and Team World, was held in Chicago, from 21-23 September 2018.
Bjorn Borg captained Team Europe and John McEnroe captained Team World.
Team Europe were eventual winners after 11 best-of-3 sets matches were completed.
The Laver Cup utilised the format, that if a match was tied at 1 set all, a Match-Tie-Break (10 points) was used as a ‘3rd set match decider’ to shorten the matches.
It is now being widely recognised that as tennis continues to evolve, matches cannot go on and on for ever and methods for shortening matches have to be utilised.
Analysis of the 2018 Laver Cup Match Tie-Breaks 8 matches (7 singles and 1 doubles) out of the 11 matches played reached 1 set all and a 3rd set MTB was utilised.
On average, 1 hour 44 minutes (152 points) was taken to complete a 3-set match, including 13 minutes (17.4 points) taken to complete the MTB.
Graphs illustrating this are shown below.
Thirty30 Comment The Match Tie-Break (10 points) without question brings a 3 set match to a quicker finish as intended.
However, the 13 minutes (17.4 points) duration of the MTB (‘shoot-out’) taken to decide the match, is a very small percentage (12.6%) of the total 1 hour 44 minutes (152 points) match time, and could be improved on.
A set (lead by 2 games) of Thirty30 provides a more satisfactory alternative to the 3rd set match decider Match Tie-Break (10 points).
Since trialling of Thirty30 was launched all over the world at the end of December 2017 it has been receiving very encouraging feedback (now 155+) and this can be found on the page link below:
https://www.thirty30tennis.com/testimonials
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