PRAGUE — After a clean sweep of the first-day singles matches by Team Europe on Friday, “exhibition” was still a dirty word at the Laver Cup.
After all, Roger Federer and his management group and the other investors in this new competition have big, long-term plans for the event.
They want gravitas with their groundstrokes, and do not want this three-day duel between a team representing Europe and a team representing the rest of the world to be just another hit-and-chuckle payday for the stars. No matter that the Laver Cup awards no ranking points and has been created outside the structure of the regular men’s tour.