LOS ANGELES, Sept. 20, 2023 - This weekend Tennis Channel will be the exclusive, live home of the sixth Laver Cup competition, the annual all-star event that pits the best players in Europe against the rest of the world. Set for September 22-24 and hosted by Vancouver, British Columbia, the first match will take place Friday, Sept. 22, at 4 p.m. ET (complete schedule below).
Team World has an especially American flavor in 2023, with four on its six-player active roster hailing from the United States. Stars Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton all reached the quarterfinals at last month’ US Open, and Tommy Paul made the tournament’s round of 16, his best result at the event. They will counter a Team Europe with a pair of top 10-ranked singles stars Andrey Rublev (Russia) and Casper Ruud (Norway).
Tennis Chanel has been the U.S. home of Laver Cup since the event’s inception in 2017. In 2023 the network plans to show more than 20 live hours of matches during the three-day event. Hall of Famer Jim Courier will be part of the channel’s on-air team, as will former players Jason Goodall, Mark Petchey (@markpetchey), Leif Shiras (@ShirasLeif) and Mark Knowles (@Knowlzee10s). During Laver Cup this weekend, Tennis Channel Live will feature former player and major-winning coach Paul Annacone (@paulannacone) beside reporter and author Jon Wertheim (@jonwertheim). Tennis Channel anchor and announcer Steve Weissman (@SteveWeissman) will host the program.
The Americans on Team World will be joined by Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime and Argentine Francisco Cerundolo. Auger-Aliassime is ranked among the top 15 singles players in the world while Cerundolo is in the top 25. Christopher Eubanks, an American who is having a watershed year in 2023 and has doubled as a Tennis Channel analyst during non-playing times in his career, is an alternate on Team World, as is Canada’s Milos Raonic, a 2016 Wimbledon finalist.
In addition to top-10 stars, Team Europe features fan-favorite Gael Monfils, a French player known for his thrilling shots and elastic on-court moves. Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz and Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina are both ranked in the top 25, and 19-year-old Arthur Fils of France rounds out the squad.
Team World and Team Europe are captained by legendary Hall of Famers, on-court rivals and friends. John McEnroe has guided Team World every year of the Laver Cup competition, facing off against Bjorn Borg for Team Europe. Their vice captains, respectively, are McEnroe’s brother Patrick, who led the United States to its most recent Davis Cup championship in 2007, and Thomas Enqvist, a 1999 Australian Open singles finalist.
Named in honor of Rod Laver, the only player to win all four majors in the same year twice, Laver Cup rotates each year between a European city and a host outside the continent. Last year in London was a breakthrough for Team World, which won the cup 13-8 after having lost the first four competitions. Team Europe took home the trophy in Prague in 2017 (15-9), Chicago in 2018 (13-8), Geneva in 2019 (13-11) and Boston in 2021 (14-1). The competition was not held in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year’s Laver Cup matches take place in Vancouver’s Rogers Arena, home to the National Hockey League’s Vancouver Canucks.
Laver Cup’s innovative scoring format is designed to build excitement as the weekend progresses. There are three singles matches and a doubles match each of the first two days. Every match is worth one point on Friday and two points on Saturday. Sunday features a doubles and singles match, followed by one or two singles matches if necessary, with all matches worth three points. A final doubles competition is used in the event of a tie. The first team to get 13 points wins the cup. In previous years this escalating scoring has led to dramatic rallies and edge-of-seat battles at the close of the event on Sunday.
Tennis Channel’s Live 2023 Laver Cup Schedule (all times ET)
Friday, Sept. 22
4 p.m. Day Session (Two Singles)
10 p.m. Night Session (Singles, Doubles)
Saturday, Sept. 23
4 p.m. Day Session (Two Singles)
10 p.m. Night Session (Singles, Doubles)
Sunday, Sept. 24
3 p.m. Day Session (Doubles, Singles*)
*Two additional singles matches will be played Sunday if required, followed by a tiebreaking doubles competition if needed.
