Laver Cup Won’t Move Weeks, Will Go Against French Open (It’s Roger v Rafa!)

After the French Open boldly moved to the end of September, the Laver Cup announced last night that their event will not move out of their week which is now home to the shifted clay Slam.

The Laver Cup is still set to be held September 25-27 in Boston and now at the same time as the French Open which will run September 20-Oct 4.

The tennis world learned today that the French Tennis Federation intends to schedule Roland Garros from Sept 20 – Oct 4, 2020 due to the impact of COVID-19.

These dates overlap with the dates of Laver Cup 2020, already sold out, and scheduled for September 25 – 27, 2020 at TD Garden in Boston.

This announcement came as a surprise to us and our partners – Tennis Australia, the USTA and the ATP. It raises many questions and we are assessing the situation. At this time, we want our fans, sponsors, broadcasters, staff, volunteers, players and the great city of Boston to know that we intend to hold Laver Cup 2020 as currently scheduled.

The subplot here is that Roger Federer’s Team8 firm runs the Laver Cup while the French has apparently already received the blessing on the move from Rafael Nadal who tournament director Guy Forget was in contact with earlier this week.

RG tournament director Guy Forget called Rafa Nadal before the announcement. Not surprising. https://t.co/6f4CsVGGXm

— Simon Cambers (@scambers73) March 17, 2020

If the virus is under control (a very, very big IF), and the tour gets back on court, then players will have to decide, go to the Laver Cup or get on the clay at the French.

Obviously, Federer will play his event and Nadal will go to Paris, but what about the other players? Novak Djokovic, Team8 member Alexander Zverev, Dominic Thiem, Stan Wawrinka, etc.

Laver Cup has very little history but would likely be able to pay players up front, and many would be hungry for that money after missing earnings due to the virus.

The French is the French and my guess is that’s where the players would go even though the tour will move from hard to clay in a week. And — a bigger problem — is the financial well-being of the sponsors of these events. Many are going to fold and impacted. The Slams should be better off with their dedicated sites for tennis. Boston isn’t like that.

Also, after the French announcement, Wimbledon confirmed they intend to keep their dates. The US Open responded saying they will run the event as scheduled, BUT could move to a later date.

With the coronavuris situation so fluid, so unknown, there will be much more fallout to come.

It is amazing that in a time of a global crisis, what does tennis do? It goes for the money.

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