On Saturday, six players took part in a new short form of the game in an experiment to gauge interest and the format. Three legends of the game from the Champions Tour and three current ATP players would take to the court. Tim Henman, John McEnroe, and Xavier Malisse were in one group, with David Ferrer and two of the British Davis Cup winning team Kyle Edmund and Andy Murray were in the second group. The rules were simple, first player to 10 points with two points clear (effectively a match tie break). In a round-robin format the three players in each group would play each other once with the top two from the group going through to the semifinals.
Henman took on McEnroe in the first match, and the Brit came out on top taking the American 10-7 to get off to a good start. Murray and Edmund played a mini battle of the Brits in the first round of their group, with Murray edging it 10-7. Murray had not played since the emotional Davis Cup win the following week so was expected to be a little rusty. Edmund going into the competition had an 11 percent record in tiebreaks. Malisse defeated McEnroe 10-7, however the American had been up 7-1 before losing the match. Murray then took on Ferrer and had no problems dispatching the Spaniard 10-4. In the final round-robin, matches Malisse secured the semifinal spot by defeating Henman 10-5 putting himself and the Brit in the semifinals.
In the other group, Edmund took on Ferrer, and in a match the Spaniard was expected to win, (due to the ranking difference) young Edmund took Ferrer out of the competition 10-3. Ferrer was officially on honeymoon after getting married earlier in the week. This set the semifinals up as Murray - Henman and Malisse - Edmund. The current British number one obliterated the former British number one for the loss of only one point. Edmund then took on Malisse and played amazingly well to defeat the Belgian 10-4. This set up an all British final and a repeat of their first round.
Edmund kept playing really well and the British number one was defeated 10-7 by the younger Brit, but Murray didn't appear to mind at all. In the post-match interview, Edmund was asked what he would do with the money (it was a winner takes all event) and Murray advised him to invest it wisely as tennis is an expensive sport, and he should build a good team around himself. Overall, this event seems to have been a hit, but will it return next year, time will tell.