Rising stars Alex Zverev and Denis Shapovalov will join the likes of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal at next month’s inaugural Laver Cup.
The event, which will take place in Prague from September 22-24, has been dubbed the Ryder Cup of tennis and will see Europe take on Team World, made up of players from the rest of the globe.
The team line-ups were confirmed in New York on Wednesday with Europe captain Bjorn Borg choosing Zverev, winner of Masters 1000 tournaments in both Montreal and Rome this season, as the second of his two wild-card selections.
Tomas Berdych is the other and the pair will join automatic qualifiers Federer, Nadal, Marin Cilic and Dominic Thiem in the six-man line-up.
Team World skipper John McEnroe revealed Shapovalov and Juan Martin Del Potro, a Davis Cup winner with Argentina last year, as his wild-card picks.
Shapovalov’s semi-final run at the recent Montreal Masters, during which he beat current world number one Nadal, was enough to convince McEnroe that the 18-year-old Canadian should be included. However, there is no place for Nick Kyrgios.
Milos Raonic, Jack Sock, John Isner and Sam Querrey make up the team which is likely to start as considerable underdogs in the Czech capital. Europe boast five of the world’s current top 10 in their line-up; Team World have none.
Indeed, Team Europe have already been installed as the 1/3 favourites by Sky Bet while Team World can be backed at 5/2.
Automatic qualification was decided by the post-Wimbledon ATP ranking list. Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic both qualified but did not take up their places and the latter has since decided to end his season any way due to injury.
The Laver Cup will see the teams compete in a series of 12 matches. On each of the three days there will be three singles and one doubles.
Each match on the opening day will be worth one point with the day-two contests worth two. The final day will have the most points at stake – three for the winners of each match. The first team to reach 13 points wins the Laver Cup. The scoring system has been designed so that the destination of the trophy is guaranteed to be determined on the last day.
The event has been set up by a consortium which includes Federer’s management company, TEAM8, and Tennis Australia.
It is due to take place every year bar summer Olympic years with the venue alternating each time – one in Europe, the next not. The USA has already been named as the host nation for the 2018 edition.
Laver Cup teams
Europe
Rafael Nadal (1)
Roger Federer (3)
Alex Zverev (6)
Marin Cilic (7)
Dominic Thiem (8)
Tomas Berdych (19)
World
Milos Raonic (11)
John Isner (14)
Jack Sock (17)
Sam Querrey (21)
Juan Martin Del Potro (28)
Denis Shapovalov (69)
- Figures in brackets are current ATP world rankings.
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