For quite a long time, the United States dominated the sport, heralded by legends like Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Pete Sampras, and Andre Agassi. Slowly, Europe started to make its contributions through the likes of Bjorn Borg and Ivan Lendl. But since the 2000s, Europe literally started to dominate through the Big Three – Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer, extending further now through Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.
The Laver Cup is an indoor hard-court event between players from Europe and players from the rest of the world. It is usually held roughly a fortnight after the US Open, alternating between cities in Europe and elsewhere, which do not host ATPs. The 2025 edition was held in San Francisco, won by Team World, and 2026 shifts back to Europe, at London’s O2 Arena.
Each team has six players, with two more as backup. Three are auto-selected on the basis of the ATP rankings, as of completion of that year’s French Open. The remaining three are as per the captains – French champion Yannick Noah for Europe and American legend Andre Agassi for the World.
Europe has some really strong names – 2026 US Open champion Alexander Zverev and 7-time Grand Slam champion Carlos Alcaraz, along with 2026 French Open finalist, Italy’s Flavio Cobolli. The other three are the impressive Rafael Jodar, Casper Ruud and Jakub Mensik.
The biggest name for Team World is Alex de Minaur, fondly nicknamed The Demon, who has just taken a different leap since 2025. Then there is Taylor Fritz, who defeated both Alcaraz and Zverev on successive days in the 2025 edition. The other names are Francisco Cerundolo, Learner Tien, Brandon Nakashima and Alexander Bublik. The format is a pretty interesting one –
1. 8 matches are played over the first 2 days – 3 singles and a doubles match on each day.
2. All players are required to play at least one match, but not more than two singles overall.
3. Matches are best of three sets, but the third set, if needed, is a 10-point match tiebreak.
4. This is the most interesting aspect –
a. A match win on Day 1 gives you 1 point
b. The tally is doubled to 2 points per match win on Day 2.
c. On Day 3, the victor gets 3 points per match win!
The first team to reach 13 points is declared the winner.
Played over the weekend from Friday, 25th September, the fixtures for Sunday can be decided only at the last moment, depending on whether the matches are required. If there is only one required match on Sunday, an additional exhibition match is played to enthral the crowd. It is the format that makes the Laver Cup unique. The Davis Cup is a competition between two countries. But here, it is just a collection of superstars from across the globe. Cannot wait for the season to kick in.
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