There was a big tennis party last week. Novak Djokovic and Grigor Dimitrov took center stage. The two really put on an impressive show for 12,000 fans in Sofia. The tennis was good. And afterward they both danced shirtless on the court.

Dimitrov and Djokovic are good buddies. “Grigor is my Bulgarian brother. And if he invites me to a match as part of his foundation work, I will of course come,” said Djokovic before the exhibition match. On the evening of the match against Djokovic, Dimitrov learned that he would soon be back on court as the replacement for Rafael Nadal, who was still unable to compete. Dimitrov then boarded the plane and made his way to Berlin for the Laver Cup, where six players from Europe compete against six players from a “world” selection in team competition.

The Laver Cup is intended as a tribute to the icons of men’s tennis, to Rod Laver, the namesake, to Björn Borg and John McEnroe, the captains. At the same time, it should bring together the best of the present and the faces of the future of the sport. This has been Roger Federer’s vision since he launched the continental competition in 2017 with his manager Tony Godsick.

Dimitrov sat a little lost on a large sofa behind the players’ bench on Friday, the first day of the Laver Cup in Berlin. Together with his teammate from Team Europe, he watched the first match of the day between Francisco Cerundolo and Casper Ruud. The format allows team members to be interviewed during the match. Dimitrov was not interviewed. Daniil Medvedev and local hero Alexander Zverev spoke into the cameras for Europe. The two don’t like each other very much, to put it mildly. They are now teammates for three days.

The Laver Cup is a strange entity. Even in its seventh edition, its identity has not been clarified. On Friday, shortly before the first singles match, Tony Godsick held a press conference with Laver Cup CEO Steve Zacks and captains McEnroe and Borg. As always at such events, McEnroe seemed listless, Borg remained taciturn. Both are doing their job for the last time this year, so it was primarily up to Godsick to make a fiery plea for the raison d’être of this—his—tournament. You couldn’t blame him. “Look, I look at the metrics on this event, and what’s important to me, like, for example, here at the Uber Arena, we were just told yesterday that this will be their highest-grossing event in their history. They have only been around, I think, since 2008. That says something about the Laver Cup,” said Godsick.

The numbers prove Godsick right, but Godsick has been in the business for so long that he naturally knows that he will not be able to remove the exhibition character from the Uber Arena during these three days in Berlin. Because the truth is that every year, the Laver Cup is above all a meeting place for an exclusive circle of players who have to pretend that they are suddenly a team—and who try to build tradition for a big check. Because that is exactly what the Laver Cup lacks. What makes it different from the Ryder Cup in golf, for example. Or even a simple ATP tournament like the clay-court classic at Hamburg’s Rothenbaum. What will remain of Berlin is already clear: the pictures of the players in front of the Brandenburg Gate, tennis pros in tuxedos at the gala dinner, Roger Federer in all variations, the always fantastically witty Andrea Petkovic as an on-court interviewer on the “iconic” black court, and a bit of theater from Johnny Mac on the sidelines.

People want to see this stuff. “Hopefully we’ll get some of that on the Tennis Channel,” Godsick himself said on Friday. For the mighty tennis manager, there are two other things besides the identity issue that won’t necessarily make things any easier for him in the upcoming editions of the Laver Cup. After the sporting withdrawal of his business partner Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, it can be said with a clear conscience, will never play for Team Europe again. McEnroe and Borg are both stepping down as captains. Djokovic, once again not taking part in Berlin, has never been a friend of the event. The Laver Cup is losing faces.

Carlos Alcaraz is playing in Berlin this year. A lot is riding on the Spaniard. Just like Jannik Sinner, the No. 1 in men’s tennis, who has decided to take a break after winning the US Open—despite all the financial temptations. And then there is the flood of other exhibitions and team competitions. In October, for example, the “Six Kings Slam” in Saudi Arabia will be vying for an insane amount of prize money. Each of the six players will receive 1.5 million U.S. dollars just for taking part. An additional 6 million U.S. dollars is on offer for the winner. Djokovic, Nadal, Alcaraz, Medvedev, Sinner, and, for some reason, Holger Rune will be participating. That sounds reasonably iconic and, with all due respect, bigger than Thanasi, Kokkinakis, and Cerundolo, the three starters from Team World this year in Berlin.

Do these kinds of events also dilute the importance of the Laver Cup, simply because there is now far too much tennis? “There could be too many other tennis events, per se, but this one is working. We have sold-out crowds. Every player loves to play. We have the biggest captains, the best sponsors,” said Godsick before the start on Friday. What can he say? Late on Friday evening, Grigor Dimitrov also made his first appearance for Team Europe. The Bulgarian played against Chile’s Alejandro Tabilo. The Uber Arena was only half full for the third match of the day. A small fan wearing a Nadal shirt sat with his father in one of the better seats. He looked almost exclusively at his mobile phone during the match. Of course, he was missing Nadal. The kid didn’t seem particularly interested in the Laver Cup action.