How the Laver Cup Works

Laver Cup Explained

The Laver Cup pits six of the best men’s tennis players from Europe against six of their counterparts from the rest of the world over three days of intense team competition.

Team Captains

Each team is captained by a legend of the sport. Yannick Noah is the Captain of Team Europe and Andre Agassi is the Captain of Team World. Tim Henman is the Vice Captain of Team Europe and Patrick Rafter is the Vice Captain of Team World.

Captain’s Role
The Captains play a pivotal role in leading their teams They are responsible for player selection; determining the Daily Lineup; team leadership both on and off the court; match preparation and on-court coaching during the matches. Their strategic thinking is critical to provide the team with the best chance of accumulating the 13 points needed to claim the Laver Cup before the opposition.

PLAYER QUALIFICATION

The three highest ranked players from each region, Europe and the World, based on their ATP singles ranking as of the Monday following Roland-Garros, receive an automatic invitation to play the Laver Cup.
If a top three ranked player chooses not to participate, the offer is made to another high ranked player, until three players on each team are confirmed.
There are three Captain’s Picks per team which can be announced any time before the start of the US Open.
If any players are announced prior to Roland Garros, the respective team captain is committing to using a Captain’s Pick on any or all of them if they do not qualify based on ranking.
Each team has a maximum of two alternates.

Player Compensation

Players are compensated in two ways:

Each of the players receives an appearance fee based on their ATP Singles ranking as of the Monday following Roland-Garros.
Each of the six players on the winning team receives $250,000 (USD). There is no prize money awarded to members of the losing team

The Opening Ceremony of Laver Cup 2018 at the United Center. Photo: Ben Solomon/Laver Cup

Laver Cup Format

The tournament consists of five sessions played over three days (Friday – Sunday).
Visit the Tournament Schedule page for more information
Both singles and doubles are best of three sets with ad scoring. In the event of split sets, the third set is a 10-point match tiebreaker.
Each player competes in at least one singles match during the first two days.
No player can play singles more than twice during the three days.
At least four of the six players must play doubles. No doubles combination is 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 – is played as a regular set with ad scoring and a tiebreak.
In the event that only one match is required on Sunday, an exhibition match is played following the trophy ceremony.

The Daily Lineup: How matches are set

Friday’s lineups are submitted via a blind draw on Wednesday and announced on Thursday.
The host Team’s preference—whether to select first on Saturday or Sunday—is submitted to the ATP Supervisor on Friday.
Saturday’s lineups are submitted with one team selecting first (blind), followed by the other responding after seeing that selection.
The team selecting first on Saturday must submit its lineup within 30 minutes after the conclusion of the night session; the second team has 30 minutes to respond with its selections.
Sunday’s lineup selection follows the same process, with the order reversed from Saturday.

Teams line up at the Laver Cup London 2022 Opening Ceremony

Laver Cup Scoring

Points Scoring
Each match win is worth one point on Friday, two points on Saturday, and three points on Sunday.

How to win the Laver Cup
The first team to reach 13 points out of a total 24 points available wins the Laver Cup.

Decider
If the points are tied at 12:12 at the end of all matches, a final overtime doubles match is played as a regular set with ad scoring and a tiebreak as a decider.

Location

The location of the Laver Cup rotates between Europe and the ‘rest of the world’ cities each year.

The event takes place annually, two weeks after the US Open.

The 9th edition of the Laver Cup takes place from September 25-27, 2026 at The O2 in London.

Los Angeles has been named the host city for the 10th edition of the Laver Cup, with the event set to be staged at Intuit Dome, in Inglewood, California, from September 24-26, 2027.

Court Surface

The tournament is always played on one competition hard court in a retractable roof stadium or indoor arena.

AN ATP EVENT

The Laver Cup is a certified event on the ATP Tour calendar. Individual match results are recorded in official player records. The Laver Cup is officiated by ATP umpires and complies with ATP Rules, Regulations and on-court procedures.

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