Who is playing at the 2026 Laver Cup? Will Alcaraz be competing for Team Europe again? What is the format? Why are the courts black? We answer all the key questions you might be asking.<\/p>\n
Who is playing at the 2026 Laver Cup?<\/p>\n
Team Europe and Team World have both confirmed their six-person line-ups for the 2026 Laver Cup.<\/p>\n
Team Europe will be led by world No. 2 Alexander Zverev, coming off the back of his second Grand Slam win of the season at the US Open<\/a>.<\/p>\n Alcaraz is set to play for the third year in a row after making his return from a long injury lay-off at Flushing Meadows.<\/p>\n French Open runner-up Flavio Cobolli and top-20 trio Casper Ruud, Rafael Jodar and Jakub Mensik complete the line-up.<\/p>\n World No. 1 Jannik Sinner has not yet played in a Laver Cup and will not compete this year.<\/p>\n De Minaur is back for Team World, who will be captained by Andre Agassi.<\/p>\n US Open runner-up Ben Shelton is set to feature along with fellow Americans Taylor Fritz and Learner Tien, as well as Alexander Bublik.<\/p>\n Tommy Paul has withdrawn due to injury and will be replaced by Francisco Cerundolo, who is making his fourth Laver Cup appearance in a row.<\/p>\n Will Alcaraz play 2026 Laver Cup after US Open return?<\/p>\n Alcaraz made his return from a wrist injury at the US Open and reached the quarter-finals, losing to Shelton in the latest-ever finish in tournament history.<\/p>\n He said after the defeat<\/a> that he left the Grand Slam with a “smile” as he was healthy again.<\/p>\n “As I said before the tournament began, my expectation was to go there, compete, play in these kind of matches being healthy,” he said.<\/p>\n Watch: Alcaraz wows everyone at Laver Cup with mind-boggling drop volley<\/p>\n Video credit: TNT Sports<\/p>\n “It was close, so I’m just not going to be disappointed about not getting the win at the end. I’m just happy. I’m just proud about myself, about how I fought.<\/p>\n “I leave the court happy. I leave the court with a smile, healthy, and this is what I needed.”<\/p>\n Alcaraz also said in New York that he plans to take more breaks from the tour<\/a> due to the physical demands throughout the year.<\/p>\n But he has given no indication that he will be stepping away from the court this season.<\/p>\n What is the Laver Cup format?<\/p>\n The Laver Cup is played over three days, with four matches on each day (three singles and one doubles).<\/p>\n Each match victory is worth one point on Friday, two points on Saturday, and three points on Sunday.<\/p>\n The first team to reach 13 points is crowned the winner.<\/p>\n The singles and doubles matches are best-of-three sets with ad scoring and a 10-point match tie-breaker instead of a third set.<\/p>\n No player can play more than two singles matches and every player must play in at least one singles match in the first two days.<\/p>\n Sunday starts with a doubles match and will be followed by up to three singles matches, depending on whether a team has reached the required points tally to claim victory.<\/p>\n If the scores are tied after 12 matches, then an overtime doubles match will be played to decide the winner.<\/p>\n How are the Laver Cup matches decided?<\/p>\n The line-ups for the first matches on Friday are submitted via a blind draw, while Saturday\u2019s matches see one team select first (blind), and the other responding after seeing that selection.<\/p>\n Sunday then sees the reverse, with the other team selecting blind, and their opponents responding.<\/p>\n Are there ranking points on offer at the Laver Cup?<\/p>\n Although the Laver Cup is an officially-sanctioned ATP Tour event, there are no ranking points on offer for players.<\/p>\n ‘He’s fighting it!’ – Watch hilarious moment as Agassi struggles to open champagne <\/p>\n Video credit: TNT Sports<\/p>\n Where will the 2027 Laver Cup be played?<\/p>\n The venue for the Laver Cup alternates each year between Europe and the ‘rest of the world’.<\/p>\n Los Angeles will host the 10th edition of the competition in 2027 at Intuit Dome, Inglewood.<\/p>\n What is the Laver Cup overall record?<\/p>\n Team Europe leads the Laver Cup head-to-head 5-3.<\/p>\n However, Team World has closed the gap by winning three of the past four editions.<\/p>\n Has the Laver Cup been held at the O2 Arena before?Yes, the Laver Cup was memorably held at the O2 Arena in 2022 when Roger Federer ended his career<\/a>.<\/p>\n Federer, one of the co-founders of the Laver Cup, bowed out of tennis after playing alongside great rivals Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic.<\/p>\n Why is the Laver Cup played on a black court?<\/p>\n The Laver Cup is played on a striking indoor black court.<\/p>\n Why? “We knew it would be distinct and premium, and thus immediately recognisable as the Laver Cup,” explained Laver Cup CEO Steve Zacks.<\/p>\n “The black court is one of the signature features of the Laver Cup. It has really resonated with the players and fans. The result has been well worth the effort.”<\/p>\n How to watch 2026 Laver CupThe 2026 Laver Cup will be live with TNT Sports on HBO Max<\/a>.<\/p>\n TNT Sports is available across all major TV platforms, offering a line-up of up to four TV channels (TNT Sports 1, TNT Sports 2, TNT Sports 3, TNT Sports 4), and up to six digital or red-button channels (TNT Sports 5 to 10), and TNT Sports Ultimate plus TNT Sports Box Office HD.<\/p>\n You can subscribe to TNT Sports through HBO Max<\/a>, BT, EE, Sky, and Virgin Media.Here is the TNT Sports schedule and TV guide<\/a>. <\/p>\n – – –<\/p>\n Add TNT Sports as a preferred source here<\/a> to enjoy more content like this.Download the TNT Sports app on iPhone<\/a>\u00a0and Android<\/a> for clips, highlights and breaking news.Watch and stream top tennis action, including the Australian Open and French Open, live with TNT Sports on HBO Max<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Watch: Top 5 points from 2025 Laver Cup Video credit: TNT Sports The seventh edition of the Ryder…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":771479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[254597,101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-771478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-laver-cup-2026","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/771479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"picture\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-dc4281ad-19fe-4f81-b960-491fc8dc8ef7-85-2560-1440.jpeg\")
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