The story of Laver Cup’s iconic black courts

Tennis courts across the globe come in blue, green, red and even purple. But not black. Not until the Laver Cup gave the tennis world a fresh experience.

But the signature black courts—a true signature, as the courts are a proprietary Laver Cup Black color—almost didn’t happen.

Before the Laver Cup’s first serve in Prague in 2017, work was happening to make black courts a reality.

“The big question initially,” says Steve Zacks, Laver Cup CEO, “was will it work? The black court was a core element of the brand positioning we had developed. We knew it would be distinct and premium, and thus immediately recognizable as the Laver Cup.”

Laver Cup partnered with Tennis Australia to run multiple tests in 2016 and 2017 to see if black was feasible. Working with a tennis court surfacing company the team painted half a court in Australia and then ran a broadcast and playability test. Michael Hoffmann, Laver Cup’s courts caretaker, says that first test wasn’t encouraging.

“Once we decided black, we needed to make sure it worked,” Hoffmann says. “People had told us black doesn’t work as a court surface, otherwise it would be used already.

“The initial report was that the playability was good, the yellow ball on the black was highly visible, but the coating of black paint looked washed out when lit up and put through the broadcast cameras.”

While some might have given up and just used a blue court, the team took it as a challenge. “Let’s make it blacker.”

The Laver Cup team worked with the paint company to develop a proprietary court paint, crafting the color by tweaking the pigments, sand content and additional materials within the paint mixture. Ample research was then done to find the ideal raw materials. After the paint development, a second test under lights in Australia showed that black worked.

Not only is the Laver Cup Black the first tournament to consistently use a black court, but it also features one of the largest—if not the largest—court in the world at 49 meters long and 23 meters wide. It also is portable.

By hosting the event in some of the world’s busiest arenas, Laver Cup needed a portable court that could be set up quickly in tight timeframes.

Laver Cup owns two identically constructed courts (the practice court is a standard size) and stores them in Munich throughout the year. Each mid-August, the wooden courts are pulled out and each of the roughly 2 meters long and 1-meter-wide panels are interlocked together, including with a clamp underneath, “like a puzzle.” Once pieced together, the courts receive a fresh layer of the black paint, which is a mixture of rubber, fiber, sand, polyethylene, acrylic and more. The crisp white lines are partly painted on in Germany with the finish on-site in at each venue. Installation takes around eight hours.

“The big mystery is when you put it together again, you don’t see the breaks,” Hoffmann says. “That’s because all the plates are numbered and all the same pieces are coming together within a millimeter, fitting exactly together again.” On-site touchups are minimal.

Crews first lay a thin foam to give the players cushioning on the concrete floor. Then comes the wood floor panels, which are previously covered in that layer of black paint to finish the surface. At 39 millimeters tall, the courts are immediately ready for play since the paint is added in Munich. The court pace is officially tested and given a medium-fast rating.

Early on, the Laver Cup decided to stick with yellow balls and now uses both a machine and some hand-cleaning to clear the rough court surface of the bright felt fuzz from the balls after each session.

“The black court is one of the signature features of the Laver Cup,” says Zacks. “It has really resonated with the players and fans. The result has been well worth the ef