Laver Cup 2018: 3 matches on our wish list

In a few hours from now, Chicago United Center will don a new look as the people come streaming in to fill the vacant seats of the stadium capable of housing a crowd of 20,000. With the Laver Cup deciding to set up camp in the state of Illinois for it's second edition, things have been hustling and bustling in the Windy City ever since Team Europe and Team World paraded in with pomp and razzmatazz a few days back.

The star-studded tennis brigade comprising of the likes of Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Bjorn Borg, and John McEnroe in its gambit, has stirred up the excitement quotient quite a bit.

Now that the steam created by all the accumulated pressure from the previous nine intense months is being allowed to let out with the conclusion of the last Grand Slam of the year two weeks back, Laver Cup is the perfect breather event on the calendar.

2018 has welcomed back legendary Champions of the game and announced the coming of newer ones with fresh rivalries being bred on the court and the older ones being rekindled. It has been a year full of dramatic tennis action, surprise upsets, and expected wins.

Following that trajectory, the Laver Cup promises to live up to it's entertaining best and pitch the best of Europe against those from the rest of the world and let spill all the drama. With Day 1 already setting in, here are a few matches on our wish list given the exciting year that has been!

Roger Federer v Kevin Anderson

Will Federer try to take revenge against Anderson and undo the bitter results from the last clash?

Let's be honest. When you switched on that television to watch Roger Federer step out on the grass turf of Wimbledon greens and dominate the court in the quarterfinals, you had no idea what was coming up next. In fact, not even the King of Grass saw this obstacle in the form of the lanky South African Kevin Anderson hurling towards him before the second set went haywire.

"I couldn't surprise him anymore. That's a bad feeling," the 37-year-old had lamented in a post-match interview and one couldn't pinpoint why exactly did the GOAT succumb to the big-serving South African on his favorite surface in the world.

Eyebrows were raised and impatient fingers dug out details about Kevin Anderson to discover him and he made sure he made their search worth it by enlisting his name in headlines following the Federer upset and the Isner marathon match and a runners-up finish at Big W.

Knowing Roger, who has 20 Grand Slam titles sitting comfortably in his trophy cabinet back home in Basel, he might just venture into another delicious face-off with Anderson in the Laver Cup and seek to change the results of their last meeting.

Djokovic-Federer vs Anderson-Sock

Clearly, the most charismatic duo of the game, this is one pair up to look out for!

Tennis was shown its graceful side with the coming of the Swiss Maestro Roger Federer and a little later, the ever-fit Serb, Novak Djokovic. With Rafael Nadal already pairing with Roger in the 2017 Prague edition of the Laver Cup, all eyes are set on the duo of Federer-Djokovic to take the stage and let it rip!

With a total of mind-boggling 34 Grand Slams titles shared in between them, it's clearly a pair-up made in tennis heaven. This, perhaps, is the most exciting bit of the tournament where the two greats will pair up on 21st September evening to play the duo of Kevin Anderson (who Djokovic humbled in the Wimbledon finals before winning it) and Jack Sock.

Novak Djokovic v John Isner

Will the marathon specialist manage to pull a trump on Djoker?

Although the statistics of the duo aren't impressive in their head to head, which the Serb Novak Djokovic largely dominates. But intuition has it that Isner has transformed over the years ever since he met the 14-time Grand Slam champion last in 2015 on the hard courts of Beijing.

Isner has always been a powerful player with just the ammunition of big serves and a towering height to see off his opponents swiftly, whilst Djokovic is the champion en route scripting a dream comeback, winning two consecutive Grand Slams in the span of fewer than 2 months.

Isner, who succumbed to Anderson after a grueling 6.5-hour semi-final match, which became the longest ever Big W semi-final in history, showed strains of greatness in him. This clash might just prove interesting and it'll be nice to see how Isner tackles the brilliance of a Djokovic and strides over him.