The Laver Cup has always occupied an unusual spot on the tennis calendar, and that is a big part of why I enjoy watching it. For most of the year, Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev are trying to beat one another. Taylor Fritz, Ben Shelton and Alex de Minaur are chasing many of the same trophies. At the Laver Cup, those individual rivalries are temporarily replaced by something we rarely get in professional tennis: a genuine team competition featuring many of the best players in the world.
The 2026 Laver Cup takes place September 25–27 at The O2 in London, with Team Europe facing Team World over three days of singles and doubles. London is also a fitting place for the event to return. The O2 hosted the 2022 Laver Cup, remembered above all as the tournament where Roger Federer played the final match of his professional career.
Watching the tournament can be a little more complicated than understanding the matchup. Laver Cup broadcast rights vary considerably by country, with Tennis Channel carrying the event in the United States, TSN in Canada, Stan Sport in Australia and Sky and Eurosport among the options in the UK.
If you’re traveling during the tournament and your normal streaming service is unavailable because of regional restrictions, a VPN is one method that can help you securely connect through a server in your home region. Jump to: How to watch the Laver Cup with a VPN
Laver Cup 2026 at a Glance
| Laver Cup 2026 | |
|---|---|
| Dates | September 25–27, 2026 |
| Location | London, England |
| Venue | The O2 |
| Teams | Team Europe vs. Team World |
| Team Europe Captain | Yannick Noah |
| Team World Captain | Andre Agassi |
| U.S. Broadcaster | Tennis Channel |
| Canada | TSN / TVA Sports |
| Australia | Stan Sport |
| UK | Sky / Eurosport |
| Format | Singles and doubles team competition |
| Points Needed to Win | 13 |
Why the 2026 Laver Cup Is Worth Watching
The concept is simple: six European players take on six players representing the rest of the world. What makes it work is seeing elite singles players suddenly care about the result of somebody else’s match. The benches are part of the show. Players coach, celebrate and react alongside their teammates, and the captains have decisions to make throughout the weekend. It creates an atmosphere that feels very different from watching another week on the ATP Tour.
There is also a nice bit of history surrounding the return to London. The last Laver Cup at The O2 in 2022 became one of the defining tennis events of the decade because it marked Federer’s farewell. Federer partnered Rafael Nadal in doubles for his final professional match, while Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray were also part of that remarkable Team Europe lineup. Four years later, the tournament comes back with a different generation increasingly responsible for carrying men’s tennis forward.
Team Europe: Alcaraz and Zverev Lead a Deep Team
Team Europe certainly isn’t short on talent. Carlos Alcaraz, Alexander Zverev, Flavio Cobolli, Jakub Mensik, Rafael Jodar and Casper Ruud make up Yannick Noah’s six-player roster. Alcaraz is naturally going to attract a huge amount of attention. The team format also gives us the possibility of seeing him involved in combinations and tactical situations we don’t normally get during the season. Zverev brings something different: Laver Cup experience. He has been one of the competition’s most successful players and has represented Europe repeatedly since the event’s early years.
Then there are players like Mensik and Cobolli, who help make this feel less like a nostalgia event and more like a snapshot of where men’s tennis is heading. Ruud, meanwhile, is a Laver Cup veteran and gives Noah another player accustomed to the strange rhythm of the competition.
Team World Has Plenty of Firepower Too
Andre Agassi’s Team World isn’t coming to London simply to provide the opposition. Taylor Fritz, Ben Shelton, Alex de Minaur and Alexander Bublik are among the players selected for Team World, giving the side some very different styles to work with. Shelton feels particularly well suited to the Laver Cup environment. He’s expressive, feeds off a crowd and possesses the kind of serve that can completely change a short team competition.
Fritz brings considerably more experience at the top of the men’s game, while de Minaur’s speed and ability to make opponents play another ball can be frustrating in this format. And then there’s Bublik. If you’re looking for someone capable of making a Laver Cup match unpredictable very quickly, he’s a pretty good candidate. That variety is one reason I wouldn’t simply look at the rankings and hand Europe the trophy. Team competitions can produce some strange tennis, particularly once Sunday’s three-point matches arrive.
How Does the Laver Cup Work?
This is where the Laver Cup gets clever. The tournament lasts three days, but matches become progressively more valuable as the weekend continues. A victory on Friday is worth one point, a victory on Saturday is worth two, and a victory on Sunday is worth three. The first team to reach 13 points wins the Laver Cup.
That prevents Friday’s results from deciding the competition too early and makes a comeback possible heading into Sunday. Matches are played best-of-three sets with regular ad scoring. If players split the first two sets, however, they play a 10-point match tiebreak instead of a complete third set.
There are also both singles and doubles matches throughout the competition. Friday and Saturday each feature three singles matches and one doubles match, while Sunday begins with doubles before moving to singles as required.
Laver Cup 2026 Schedule
All of the times below are local London time (BST).
Friday, September 25
The opening day session begins at 1:00 PM, with two singles matches. The night session starts at 7:00 PM, featuring another singles match followed by doubles. Each victory on Friday is worth one point.
Saturday, September 26
Saturday’s first session starts at 1:00 PM, followed by the night session at 7:00 PM. The structure is similar to Friday, but the pressure increases because every victory is now worth two points.
Sunday, September 27
The final session begins earlier at 12:00 PM. Sunday starts with doubles, followed by singles matches as necessary. Every victory is worth three points, and play continues until one team reaches the 13 points required to win the Laver Cup. That escalating scoring system is why I’d avoid writing off either team after Friday. Sunday can change the entire competition very quickly.
How to Watch the Laver Cup 2026 in the United States
For American tennis fans, Tennis Channel is the official U.S. broadcaster for the 2026 Laver Cup. That’s worth checking before the tournament rather than assuming your usual Grand Slam streaming setup will work. Tennis broadcasting in the U.S. is fragmented enough already, and the Laver Cup has its own international rights agreements. If you’re watching through a TV or streaming provider that includes Tennis Channel, check its schedule closer to September 25 for the exact coverage available through your subscription.
How to Watch in Canada
Canadian coverage is split by language. TSN is listed as the English-language broadcaster, while TVA Sports has French-language coverage. Again, access to the corresponding streaming services can depend on your subscription and location.
How to Watch the Laver Cup in the UK
Fans in the host country have multiple options. The official Laver Cup broadcaster list includes both Sky and Eurosport for the United Kingdom. Since the tournament is being played at The O2, UK viewers also get the benefit of a very friendly schedule compared with fans watching from North America. The Friday and Saturday evening sessions begin at 7 PM locally, while Sunday’s potentially decisive session starts at noon.
Watching From Australia
In Australia, the official 2026 broadcaster is Stan Sport. The time difference makes London considerably less convenient for Australian viewers, particularly for the evening sessions, but Stan Sport gives local subscribers a dedicated option for following the competition.
Watching the Laver Cup Around the World
One of the advantages of the Laver Cup is just how widely it is distributed. Depending on where you live, official broadcasters include Eurosport across numerous European markets, ESPN International throughout much of Latin America and the Caribbean, beIN Sports in several Asian and Middle Eastern markets, SuperSport across much of Africa, Sony/Sony Sports in South Asia, WOWOW in Japan and CJ Media in South Korea, among many others.
The Laver Cup has published a country-by-country broadcaster directory for 2026, so I recommend checking the official list if your country isn’t one of the major markets covered above.
There is another particularly interesting option this year: the Laver Cup says Prime Video will stream matches live and on demand to Prime members across more than 200 countries and territories. Availability and the exact viewing experience can still vary by location, so check your local Prime Video listing before relying on it for the weekend.
Why Can Laver Cup Streams Be Geo-Restricted?
Sports broadcasting rights are generally sold by territory. That’s why the service showing a tennis tournament in the United States isn’t necessarily the same service showing it in Britain, Australia or France. Streaming platforms can consequently use your internet connection’s IP address to determine where you appear to be connecting from. If you’re outside the region where your subscription is available, you may find that the stream you normally use at home isn’t accessible.
This comes up most often for sports fans who are traveling. You could have a perfectly legitimate subscription at home, fly to another country during Laver Cup weekend, open the same service and discover that its content availability has changed. That’s where a VPN can be useful.
How to Watch the Laver Cup With a VPN
A VPN routes your internet connection through a VPN server. When you connect to a server in a particular country, websites and streaming platforms generally see the IP address of that VPN server rather than your regular connection.
For a tennis fan traveling abroad, the basic method is straightforward:
- Choose a VPN with servers in your home country. I use and recommend ExpressVPN for sports streaming.
- Install the VPN app on the device you’ll use to watch the Laver Cup.
- Connect to a server in your home region. For example, an American traveling abroad could connect to a U.S. server before accessing their normal U.S. streaming service.
- Open your legitimate streaming provider and sign in normally.
- Find the Laver Cup broadcast and start watching.
A VPN doesn’t give you a subscription to Tennis Channel, TSN, Stan Sport, Sky or another paid service. You’ll still need whatever legitimate subscription or account that broadcaster normally requires.
Disclosure: VPNForSports may earn a commission if you purchase through our links, at no additional cost to you.
Why I Like ExpressVPN for Watching Tennis
Tennis is a particularly good test for a VPN because you’re not connecting for five minutes. A Laver Cup session can keep you watching for hours, and the last thing I want midway through a deciding set is an unstable connection.
That’s why ExpressVPN is my preferred option for watching sports while traveling. It has a large international server network, apps for most of the devices I actually want to watch sports on, and the setup is simple enough that you don’t have to spend the first set tinkering with VPN settings.
For the Laver Cup specifically, having server options across major tennis markets is useful because the event has so many different international broadcast partners.
No VPN can guarantee access to every streaming platform all of the time, and you should still follow the terms of the service you’re using. Think of the VPN as the connection method; your broadcaster or streaming subscription remains the way you actually access the tennis.
Don’t Forget the Free Laver Cup Bench Cam
There’s also a fun second-screen option that doesn’t require a traditional TV broadcast. The Laver Cup operates a free Bench Cam on LaverCup.com, showing what’s happening around the Team Europe and Team World benches.
That’s more interesting here than it would be at almost any normal tennis tournament. Watching players react to teammates, discuss matches and celebrate together is a huge part of what separates the Laver Cup from a standard ATP event. I wouldn’t use it instead of the main broadcast, but I’d absolutely keep it open alongside the tennis.
Three Days of Tennis That Don’t Feel Like the Rest of the Tour
The Laver Cup doesn’t need to replace Wimbledon, the US Open or the biggest ATP events to be worthwhile. It’s fun precisely because it isn’t trying to be another traditional tournament. For three days, players who normally spend the season trying to knock each other out of draws suddenly have a reason to sit courtside and desperately want each other to win.
London adds another layer to the 2026 edition. Four years after The O2 hosted Federer’s farewell, the tournament returns with Alcaraz, Zverev, Fritz, Shelton, de Minaur and another generation of players creating their own Laver Cup moments.
If you’re at home, find the official broadcaster for your country and enjoy the tennis. If you’re traveling and geographic restrictions get between you and the service you normally use, a VPN gives you another method for securely connecting back through your home region. Then all that’s left is hoping Team Europe and Team World keep it close enough that those three-point Sunday matches really matter.
