Laver Cup 2021: Explaining the format & points allocation as Day 1 order of play is announced
The 2021 Laver Cup will get underway in Boston on 24 September, with several top stars from men's tennis in action. As of now, only the Day 1 schedule of the tournament has been released; the following fixtures will take place on Friday:
Laver Cup day session, Friday 24 September
Casper Ruud vs Reilly Opelka
Matteo Berrettini vs Felix Auger-Aliassime
Laver Cup night session, Friday 24 September
Andrey Rublev vs Diego Schwartzman
Alexander Zverev / Matteo Berrettini vs John Isner / Denis Shapovalov (doubles)
Day 1 and 2 will see matches being played over two sessions - a day session commencing from 1 pm local time and a night session beginning from 7 pm local time.
Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are all absent this time around, but there are still a fair few showstoppers in Boston. Team Europe, who have won the tournament three times on the trot, are represented by Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alexander Zverev, Matteo Berrettini, Andrey Rublev and Casper Ruud, with Feliciano Lopez being the first alternate.
Team World, meanwhile, features Denis Shapovalov, Diego Schwartzman, Reilly Opelka, Felix Auger-Aliassime, John Isner and Nick Kyrgios, with Jack Sock being the first alternate.
John McEnroe captains Team World, and Team Europe is being led by Bjorn Borg.
What is the Laver Cup format, and how are the points allotted?
Team World Captain @JohnMcEnroe is ready to play ball.
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There are four matches on each of the three days, out of which three are singles and one is doubles. All matches are best-of-three, with the deciding set being a 10-point match tiebreaker.
Every player is required to participate in at least one singles match over the first two days. However, no player can play singles more than twice in a single edition of the Laver Cup.
Both teams must also ensure that at least four of their six playing members take part in doubles. Moreover, one doubles combination can play only one match, with the only exception being a potential deciding match in case points are tied at 12-12 at the end of Day 3.
Now let's now take a look at how the Laver Cup points scoring is done.
Each match win at the Laver Cup on Day 1 (Friday) gives the winning team one point. However, two points are awarded on Day 2 (Saturday) and three on Day 3 (Sunday).
On the occasion that both teams are tied on 12 points each, a final doubles match is played. But that consists of just one regular-scoring set which, if tied, is decided by a 10-point match tiebreaker.
The lineup for Saturday and Sunday's Laver Cup matches will be announced an hour after the end of play on the preceding day.
Team Europe captain Bjorn Borg arrives in Boston.
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