TC will be in TD Garden this weekend.
Fans can watch the entire 2021 Laver Cup weekend live on Tennis Channel from Boston starting this Friday, September 24th at 12:30 p.m. Eastern time.
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The event, postponed last year due to COVID-19, pits a team of Europe’s top tennis players against the rest of the world’s finest.
Tennis Channel says it plans to show approximately 25 hours of live Laver Cup tennis this year, with another 20 hours dedicated to same-day encores each evening. Steve Weissman will host daily lead-in show Tennis Channel Live at the Laver Cup, which runs ahead of each of the five Laver Cup sessions across three days. Announcers Brett Haber and Noah Eagle handle play-by-play during the matches, with former players Paul Annacone and Chanda Rubin offering analysis. U.S. doubles player Nick Monroe will also comment for the network.
Hall of Famers John McEnroe of Team World and Bjorn Borg of Team Europe resume their playing-days rivalry at Laver Cup for the fourth time as captains of their respective squads.
So far, the edge is entirely Europe’s, with Borg’s group taking the first three cups: 15-9 in 2017, 13-8 in 2018 and 13-11 in 2019. Laver Cup is an annual team-tennis event in late September that features six top-ranked players on each side and rotates between a European and non-European city each autumn. This year’s competition is based in Boston’s TD Garden, home of the NBA’s Boston Celtics and NHL’s Boston Bruins. Previous hosts were Prague (2017); Chicago (2018); and Geneva (2019).
Each day of Laver Cup competition features three singles matches and one doubles match, with the points value of winning each match escalating as the tournament progresses: one point per match on Friday, two on Saturday, three on Sunday. The first team to reach 13 points wins the Laver Cup. Friday and Saturday are separated into day and night sessions, with a single, four-match session on Sunday.
Team World has an American flavor again with John Isner (World No. 22) and Reilly Opelka (No. 19). Isner, who won the prestigious Miami Open title in 2018, was crowned champion in Atlanta this summer before reaching the semifinals at the Canadian Open in Toronto. This year Opelka – America’s top-ranked player and the tallest on Team World – reached the final in Toronto and semifinal in Rome, two of the tour’s prominent Masters events.
Their teammates include Canadians Felix Auger-Aliassime (No. 11), who reached the US Open semifinals in New York this month, and Denis Shapovalov (No. 12), who was a major semifinalist as well this year, at Wimbledon. Also on the team, Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman (No. 15) won the title in his native Buenos Aires this year and reached the French Open quarterfinals. Australia’s Nick Kyrgios (No. 95) rounds out the roster and, while not traveling to many events during the pandemic, has won six tour singles championships in his career and been ranked as high as No. 13.
Russia’s newly minted US Open-champion Daniil Medvedev (No. 2) is at the front of a Team Europe lineup that includes four of the five top-ranked singles players and six of the top 10. Medvedev’s exceptional season includes reaching the Australian Open final and winning the title in Toronto. Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas (No. 3) won Masters championships in Monte Carlo, Monaco; and Lyon, France; and reached the French Open semifinals this year. German Alexander Zverev (No. 4) won the gold medal at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo this year, and Masters titles in Cincinnati and Madrid, in addition to reaching the French Open and US Open semifinals.
Andrey Rublev (No. 5) won the ATP Cup for Russia in February along with Medvedev, and was a finalist in Cincinnati and Monte Carlo this season. Also on Team Europe, Italy’s Matteo Berrettini (No. 7) reached the quarterfinals at all four majors in 2021, and advanced to the final at Wimbledon. Norway’s Casper Ruud (No. 10) completes the field and has won four ATP titles this year while also reaching the semifinals in Madrid and Monte Carlo.
McEnroe’s younger brother Patrick, who captained the U.S. Davis Cup squad to the 2007 Davis Cup championship in Portland, serves as Team World’s vice captain. Similarly, Thomas Enqvist was captain of Sweden’s 1997 and 1998 Davis Cup championships, and will be Team Europe’s vice captain this year. Both were Laver Cup vice captains in 2019.
Tennis Channel’s Live 2021 Laver Cup Schedule
Friday, September 24th: 12:30 p.m.-5 p.m. Day Session (two singles); 6 p.m.-11 p.m. Night Session (singles, doubles)
Saturday, September 25th: 12:30 p.m.-5 p.m. Day Session (two singles); 6 p.m.-5 p.m. Night Session (singles, doubles)
Sunday, September 26th: 11:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Day Session (doubles, three Singles)
Photo credit: Getty for Laver Cup