The Laver Cup, named after the legendary Rod Laver, is set to get underway on Friday. Here’s everything you need to know about the unique star-studded event coming up:
What is it?
The Laver Cup pits the top players of Europe against the top players from the rest of the world. Thus it is a team event comprising of 2 teams : Europe and The World.
The Teams
Each team is comprised of six players, and led by a team captain, who is a legend of the sport. The captain of Europe is Bjorn Borg, and the captain of The World is John McEnroe.
Four of the six players qualify based on their ATP singles ranking as of the Monday following Wimbledon. Two are “captain’s picks” that are announced by the Monday after the US Open.
Team Europe
Bjorn Borg (Captain)
Rafael Nadal
Roger Federer
Marin Cilic
Dominic Thiem
Alexander Zverev
Tomas Berdych
Team World
John McEnroe (Captain)
Jack Sock
Nick Kyrgios
John Isner
Sam Querrey
Denis Shapovalov
Frances Tiafoe*
*Initially Juan Martin del Potro was selected, but after he withdrew due to injury, Tiafoe was selected as replacement.
Venue
The upcoming first Laver Cup will be held in Europe, at the O2 arena in Prague.
The location will rotate between Europe and the rest of the world cities each year. In 2018 the Laver Cup will be played in the USA.
It will take place every year, two weeks following the US Open, except in Summer Olympic years.
Schedule
The Laver Cup will be held from 22-24 September. The first match starts at 1 PM CET on Friday, 22nd September.
On each of the days, there will be 3 singles matches and 1 doubles match.
If the competition is tied after 12 matches, a final overtime doubles match will be played as a regular set with ad scoring and a tie break.
Format
The event will be played over three days. On Friday and Saturday, there will be a day and night session followed by a final single day session on Sunday.
Each day four matches are played – three singles and a doubles.
Both singles and doubles will be best of three sets with ad scoring. In the event of split sets, the third set will be a 10-point match tiebreaker.
Each player will play at least one singles match during the two days.
No player will play singles more than twice during the three days.
At least four of the six players must play doubles. No doubles combination can be played more than once, unless for the Decider on Day 3, if points are 12:12.
The winning team must reach 13 points.
In the event of a tie after all 12 matches are played, a final overtime doubles match – a Decider – will be played as a regular set with ad scoring and a tie break.
Matchups will be determined prior to the first match each day through the exchange of lineup cards by the captains.
Scoring
Each match win will be worth one point on Friday, two points on Saturday, and three points on Sunday.
The first team to reach 13 points out of a total 24 points available will win the Laver Cup. If the points are tied at 12:12 at the end of all matches, a fifth match will be played on Sunday to determine the winner.
Surface
The Laver Cup will always be played on one competition hard court in a retractable roof stadium or indoor arena.
Bonus – Can we really get to see Federer and Nadal playing doubes together?
This is up to captain Bjorn Borg, who has himself stated it is a combination everyone wants to see. This will likely depend on a number of factors including Borg’s strategy for winning the overall competition.
