Laver Cup

Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev to join Carlos Alcaraz on Laver Cup's Team Europe

The Russian and German, who faced off in the Australian Open semifinals, now give the home side half of its roster.

Published Feb 08, 2024

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Having lost the Laver Cup the past two years, Team Europe enlisted Carlos Alcaraz in hopes of recapturing the trophy.

Carlitos will have some capable backup.

On Thursday, it was announced that world No. 3 Daniil Medvedev and world No. 6 Alexander Zverev will be wearing blue for their continent when the Laver Cup is contested in Berlin, September 20-22.

Medvedev last competed in the internatinal competition in 2021, following his win over Novak Djokovic in the US Open final (which denied the Serbian a calendar-year Grand Slam). Zverev was a participant in the first four editions of Laver Cup—all won by Team Europe.

“Team Europe is super motivated to win back the Cup in Berlin,” said Team Europe captain Bjorn Borg. “With Daniil, Sacha and Carlos on my team, I think we have an excellent chance of making that happen.

“The guys have had an incredible start to the year, and this is a really strong first half of our line-up. I’m thrilled to have these champions in the fold for 2024.”

Medvedev and Zverev faced off in the semifinals of this year's Australian Open, with the Russian rallying to victory from two sets down.

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Zverev has the distinction of winning the Cup-clinching match in the 2018, 2019 and 2021 Laver Cups:

2018: defeated Kevin Anderson, 6-7 (3), 7-5, [10-7] for a 13-8 Team Europe win
2019: defeated Milos Raonic, 6-4, 3-6, [10-4] for a 13-11 Team Europe win
2021: with Andrey Rublev, defeated Reilly Opelka and Denis Shapovalov, 6-2, 6-7 (4), [10-3] for a 14-1 Team Europe win

“I’m so excited about returning to Laver Cup,” said the German-born Zverev. “The atmosphere is always electric and for the Laver Cup to be at home in Germany, for me in particular, is going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

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Medvedev is fresh off reaching his sixth career Grand Slam final at the Australian Open, and his third consecutive semifinal-or-better showing at a Slam. After defeating Zverev in the semis despite a two-set deficit, he won the first two sets against Jannik Sinner before falling in five.

No player may enjoy Laver Cup's truncated format more than Medvedev: the former No. 1 spent a record 24 hours and 17 minutes on court at the season’s first major.

“For me, the most exciting thing about Laver Cup is always the team spirit, because it’s very rare that I get to play team competitions in tennis,” said Medvedev. “Having Carlos and Sacha on our team will help a lot because they are two of the best players in the world and I’m really excited to try and get Team Europe back to their winning ways.”

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Team Europe and Team World will each field six players, with the following rules:

Each player must compete in one singles match during the first two days, and no more than two during the three-day competition.
At least four of the six players must play doubles.
Each match win is worth one point on Friday, two points on Saturday, and three points on Sunday.
The first team to reach 13 points wins the Laver Cup.

“They want to win this one badly,” said Team World captain John McEnroe. “But guess what? So do we.

“This is going to be one of the biggest showdowns in tennis this year.”

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