MathDB
10 players in a tennis tournament

Source: Argentina 1996 OMA L3 p6

May 13, 2024
combinatorics

Problem Statement

In a tennis tournament of 1010 players, everyone played against everyone once. In this tournament, if player ii won the match against player jj, then the total number of matches ii lost plus the total number of matches jj won is greater than or equal to 88. We will say that three players ii, jj, kk form an atypical trio if ii beat jj, jj beat kk and kk beat ii. Prove that in the tournament there were exactly 4040 atypical trios.