Rod Laver, John McEnroe, Novak Djokovic and Juan Martín del Potro unveil full Laver Cup teams in New York

(August 21, 2018) NEW YORK, NY – The legendary Rod Laver joined John McEnroe, Novak Djokovic and Juan Martín del Potro to announce Laver Cup line-up on Tuesday at the JP Morgan Chase Building on Madison Avenue. This year’s event will take place at the United Center, Chicago, from September 21-23, 2018.

Kyle Edmund was the final captain’s pick for Team Europe and Jack Sock as McEnroe’s last Team World selection for the unique team event.

Asked about the recent Davis Cup upheaval and the surge in team events, a crowded marketplace for team competitions in tennis, Davis Cup, the ATP next year. 

Asked to give his thoughts, McEnroe said:

“That’s sort of obviously a hot topic right now. I think if anyone has heard what I’ve had to say over the course of the last 40 years, change has been needed for a long time.
The critical thing to me is we have an event that to me was the most successful event I’d seen in tennis in 10 years, 15 years. We should nurture that. Everyone should rally around it.

“What happens with the other events and what ends up really happening is something that remains to be seen. I think clearly from a certain standpoint the players, because it’s an individual sport, love to get out there and play a team event.

“But it is crowded. It still has to be, in my opinion, worked out. I don’t think the ink is dry on all this. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’s all been decided.

“To me we have Rod Laver. We should make sure this event, in my personal opinion, the players, the powers that be, the leaders of our sport, want this to be successful.”

Laver also responded: “I played Davis Cup for Australia for I think five or six years, enjoyed every moment of it. It was quite an experience. I think the same with John, Novak. I don’t think it’s found its right location yet, the way they’re putting it together.
The Laver Cup, certainly I’m excited that it’s named after me, but just seeing what I saw at Prague last year, the interest that was there, I think hopefully we’ll see it again in Chicago. That’s the deal. All the players that are here, but the crowd over there, they haven’t seen this sort of tennis ever.

TEAM EUROPE

Captain: Björn Borg

[2] Roger Federer

[4] Alexander Zverev

[6] Novak Djokovic

[8] Grigor Dimitrov

[10] David Goffin

[16] Kyle Edmund

TEAM WORLD

Captain: John McEnroe

[3] Juan Martin del Potro

[5] Kevin Anderson

[11] John Isner

[13] Diego Schwartzman

[18] Jack Sock

[30] Nick Kyrgios

Fast Facts:

· The Laver Cup is a three-day tournament pitting a team of six of the best tennis players from Europe against six of their counterparts from the rest of the world

· Björn Borg is captain of Team Europe and John McEnroe is captain of Team World

· Thomas Enqvist and Patrick McEnroe are vice captains of Team Europe and Team World

· The tournament is named in honor of Australian tennis legend Rod Laver, the only man to win two calendar-year Grand Slams, and one of the greatest players of all time

· The unique format of the tournament showcases tennis superstars competing on the same team, playing singles, pairing up in doubles and cheering each other from the sidelines

· The inaugural Laver Cup was held at the O2 arena in Prague, Czech Republic, from September 22-24, 2017, with Team Europe defeating Team World 15-9

· The location will rotate between major cities in Europe and the rest of the world each year

· The 2018 edition of the Laver Cup will take place at the United Center in Chicago, United States, from September 21-23, 2018.

Playing format:

· Each team comprises six players and is led by a team captain

· The competition is played over three days – Friday, Saturday and Sunday

· There are five sessions, two on Friday and Saturday, and one on Sunday

· Four matches are played daily, three singles and one doubles

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

· The first team to reach 13 points wins the Laver Cup

· In the event of a tie after all 12 matches have been completed, a final overtime doubles match is played as a regular set with ad scoring and a tiebreak

· Both singles and doubles are best-of-three sets with ad scoring, with the third set decided by a 10-point tiebreak in the event of split sets

· Each player will play at least one singles match during the first two days

· No player will play singles more than twice during the three days

· At least four of the six players must play doubles

· Match-ups will be determined prior to each day of play through the exchange of line-up cards by the captains.

Player qualification:

· Players for Team Europe and Team World must qualify or be selected as ‘captain’s picks’ by their team captain

· Each team comprises six players, with four players on each team qualifying based on their ATP singles ranking as of the Monday following Wimbledon

· Two players on each team are ‘captain’s picks’ and will be announced by the Monday after the US Open.