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?
Since people so quickly come up with the total number of matches in a
single elimination tournament (N-1), how has nobody come across using
this to easily derive the answer? Fair enough that in a
tournament of unmatched skill players, some chances are different than
others, but the "average" (or expected) chance would work out to cancel
any skill weightings.
So, with (N) players, (N-1) matches, and [(N)*(N-1)]/2 possible pairings, doesn't this work out fairly easily?
Now hopefully Im not sticking my foot in my mouth :)
Logic?
