Tennis to Launch New Ryder Cup-Style Competition in 2017

Tennis will be launching its own version of golf’s Ryder Cup after announcing a new global event, the Laver Cup, named after Australian tennis legend Rod Laver.

The announcement was made in Australia, where the Australian Open is currently taking place, by Roger Federer’s management company Team8, Tennis Australia and and former Brazilian and Swiss Davis Cup player Brazilian businessman Jorge Paulo Lemann.

The Laver Cup is a product of a partnership between the three parties and is scheduled to get started in 2017.

The concept will be a three-day men’s event that will pit Europe’s best players against the top players from the rest of the world.

“This came about a couple years ago,” said Tony Godsick, president and CEO of Team8.

“We’ve been talking about doing something with Rod Laver to honor his legacy. We’ve come up with a format and platform that we think will do the sport great and is really exciting.”

11-time major winner Rod Laver said: “I’m certainly honored that it warrants the name the Laver Cup. It’s a great feeling.

“I think if you’re in the Davis Cup format, you’re sort of country to country. It’s always been that way. This is just purely Europe against the rest of the world. Hopefully the top players will want to participate.

“It’s a learning curve of trying to get the right scheduling and the right amount of play with all of [the] different players around the world. But I’m honored to have my name associated with the Laver Cup.”

The competition will see the teams captained by a legend of the sport from each region and will feature six players each.

Four players on each team will qualify though a results-based formula, with the final two players selected by the captains.

The competition will unfold on one court over three days; each day will feature three singles matches and a doubles match, all contested as best-of-three sets.

Should proceedings be tied after all 12 matches, a doubles match will determine the outcome.

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