For the first time since its inaugural edition in 2017, the Laver Cup will see a switch-up in team captains.
Team Europe’s longtime leader, Bjorn Borg, will be replaced by former French Open champion Yannick Noah, who will take charge alongside vice captain Tim Henman.
On the other hand, Team World’s two-time Laver Cup-winning captain John McEnroe will make way for eight-time major champion Andre Agassi.
Helping Agassi manage his side will be Pat Rafter, who has been surprised at how different the Laver Cup experience has been compared to his initial expectations.
Patrick Rafter’s initial thoughts about his Laver Cup experience
In his pre-tournament press conference, Rafter said: “[I was] thinking coming into the Laver Cup could be quite similar [to the Davis Cup], but it’s actually not in many ways.
“We’ve got guys from all around the world playing, and what’s probably struck me the most is the buy-in from the players, and it has just all of a sudden elevated myself with this whole event as well with Andre.
“I’m just so engaged now, and everyone’s pumped up to win it. I guess I had a preconceived idea of how the event would be run, and how it would be played, but it’s very different being here and on the ground.
“I’m just so happy to be amongst all these guys, getting to know them and watch them play tomorrow. It’s going to be on for young and old, I can’t wait.”
Andre Agassi suggests fans would rather attend the Laver Cup than a major
Captain Agassi noticed the same engagement when he went to the practice courts at the Laver Cup for the first time.
The American said: “Going there, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but when I was there, you could tell that it meant a great deal to every sort of component of it, right? You could see the players care about what they were doing.
“Talking to John [McEnroe] and Bjorn [Borg] in the past about how exciting it is from their perspective, I kind of called a little Yahtzee on that and I was going, “You’re just saying that,” right? And then I go there and I see how into it they are.
“I mean, for the fans, talking to them, they’d rather spend the weekend at this event in some cases than maybe even if they were lucky enough to go to a Grand Slam semis and finals.
“Because you never know what you’re going to see, but you know what you’re going to get. All these players are great, and you might get the most interesting matchup that you never would have expected.”
The first match at the Laver Cup will see Team Europe’s Casper Ruud pitted against Reilly Opelka of Team World.
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