There are N players in a tennis tournament. Assuming the initial pairings are done randomly, what are the odds that a certain pair will play each other?

If I understood right, you are asking for the odds that a certain pair will play each other IN THE FIRST ROUND.

The N players can be paired in C(N,2) - combination of N elements taken two by two. This is the numer of possible pairings.

So, the odds are 1/C(N,2).  

Posted by pcbouhid on 2005-08-02 15:02:08