Agassi, Alcaraz, Federer: Everything you always wanted to know about the 2025 Laver Cup (but never had time to find out)

The 2025 Laver Cup will take place in San Francisco in September

20 February 2025

What is the Laver Cup?

The Laver Cup is an international men’s tennis team event held between Team Europe (consisting of players from Europe) and Team World (consisting of players from all regions except Europe). The event is held alternately in Europe and in another city in the rest of the world.

The tournament was inspired by golf’s Ryder Cup and is named after Australian tennis legend Rod Laver.

Who won THE 2024 Laver Cup?

Team Europe beat Team World 13-11 in the 2024 Laver Cup, after trailing 8-4 heading into the final day.

Francisco Cerundolo beat Casper Ruud 6-4, 6-4 to put Team World ahead in the first match of the tournament on Friday. Stefanos Tsitsipas then levelled with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Thanasi Kokkinakis and Grigor Dimitrov beat Alejandro Tabilo 7-6 (4), 7-6 (2) to put Europe ahead before the American partnership of Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton saw off Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev 7-6 (5), 6-4 to even the scores after day one.

On day two, Frances Tiafoe beat Danill Medevedev 3-6, 6-4, 10-5 to once against pull ahead of Team Europe, before Carlos Alcaraz put on a sensational performance and beat Ben Shelton 6-4, 6-4 to level the scores at 4-4. In the evening session, Taylor Fritz outlasted Alexander Zverev 6-4, 7-5, before Ben Shelton and Alejandro Tabilo dominated Casper Ruud and Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-1, 6-2 in the doubles match. The two victories meant that Team World led 8-4 heading into the third day of the Laver Cup.

On day three, Alcaraz and Ruud handed Shelton his first-ever doubles loss in Laver Cup, with the pair taking down Shelton/Tiafoe 6-2, 7-6(6) to begin the day’s play. However, Shelton gained his revenge with a brilliant 6-7 (6), 7-5, 10-7 victory over Medvedev, which saw the Russian lucky not to be defaulted after he threw his racquet into the crowd during the first-set tiebreak.

With Team World needing just one win from the remaining two matches on Sunday, Team Europe sent in their big guns in world No 2 Zverev and No 3 Alcaraz. Both delivered, with Zverev downing Tiafoe in a tight 6-7 (5), 7-5, 10-5 clash, while Alcaraz sealed the victory in a sudden death match against Fritz, prevailing 6-2, 7-5 to secure Team Europe’s 13-11 win.

The victory is only the second time a team has come back from being behind at the start of day three, with Team World doing so when they claimed their maiden Laver Cup title in 2022.

Who are the captains for the 2025 Laver Cup?

Andre Agassi will be captain of Team World, with Yannick Noah captain of Team Europe. Their first event as captain will be in San Francisco in 2025.

Who will play at the 2025 Laver Cup?

Two players have been announced for each team so far.

Team World

Taylor Fritz
Ben Shelton

Team Europe

Carlos Alcaraz
Alexander Zverev

Where has the Laver Cup been held?

The 2024 edition of the Laver Cup was held in Berlin, Germany. The previous editions have been held in the below cities:

2017 (inaugural edition) – Prague, Czech Republic
2018 – Chicago, United States
2019 – Geneva, Switzerland
2020 – not held due to Covid-19 pandemic
2021 – Boston, United States
2022 – London, United Kingdom
2023 – Vancouver, Canada
2024 – Berlin, Germany

What is the format of the Laver Cup?

The tournament is played over three days with the first two days consisting of a day and a night session, and a day session on the third day. Four matches – three singles and a doubles match– are played each day. All matches are played in a best-of-three sets format with ad scoring. If the first two sets are tied, then the third is decided by a 10-point match tiebreaker.

Each win earns the team one point on Friday, two points on Saturday, and three points on Sunday. The first team to win 13 points (out of a total 24 points available) wins the trophy. If the points are tied at 12-12 at the end of all matches, a fifth match (the “Decider”) is played on the final day to determine the winner of the tournament.

Who came up with the concept for the Laver Cup?

The tournament is the brainchild of Roger Federer and his agent, Tony Godsick. The tournament is an ATP-sanctioned event.

The tournament is named after Rod Laver, one of the greatest players in the history of the sport. Laver. who hailed from Australia, is the only player in the history of the sport to win the calendar Grand Slam (all four majors in a single season) twice – in 1962 as an amateur and in 1969 as a pro.

Who selects the Laver Cup teams?

Three of the six players on each team qualify based on their ATP singles rankings as of the Monday after Roland-Garros in June, although if they do not wish to be selected, the captains will choose another high-ranked individual. The captains select the other three members of their team – the “captain’s picks” – to be made before the US Open.