Roger Federer’s agent explains why the Laver Cup is never played outside North America whenever Team World are the hosts

The 2026 Laver Cup is officially underway, with Team Europe taking a healthy 3-1 lead after day one.

Named after tennis legend Rod Laver, the only player in history to complete the Calendar Grand Slam twice, the Laver Cup pits six players from Team Europe and six from Team World in a series of singles and doubles matches across three days. Since its debut in Prague in 2017, Team Europe and Team World have alternated as the hosts for the Laver Cup.

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London's O2 Arena is the venue for this year's edition, while the Chase Centre in San Francisco held the competition in 2025. Despite Team World clearly encompassing everywhere on the planet outside of Europe, the Laver Cup has never been held outside of North America.

Tony Godsick explains the venue issue the Laver Cup has

The four times it has been Team World's turn to host, Chicago, Boston, Vancouver and San Francisco have been the cities of choice, while Los Angeles is confirmed for 2027.

Tennis legend Roger Federer co-created the Laver Cup along with his agent, Tony Godsick, who recently explained why the event has not been hosted outside of Europe, the US or Canada yet.

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"In the beginning when we launched, we said we were going to go to places all around the world, and I think that was one thing I actually said that a few people keep pounding on," said Godsick in a press conference at the 2026 Laver Cup.

"We didn't realise what we actually needed in an arena when we started this. We were not arena experts, and we actually worked with a group who started to help us become experts. It's very hard to find facilities that have a certain amount of seats in a neighborhood or a country where your sponsors — you know, we have 25 sponsors now, so we have a lot of voices telling us where they would like us to go and when they would like us to go and things like that. There are so many factors from when we originally conceptualised the idea.

"In any event or in any sort of project or platform, you've got to innovate, change, adapt, and that's what we're doing. Sure, we'd love to bring this to Africa, would love to bring it to South America. We've got to find an indoor arena that can actually handle us for a period of time that has all the specifications.

"I mean, I have become an expert in lights. I never thought I'd have to learn about lights. There are arenas, we have wanted to go to cities, and Steve [Zacks] — Steve has a lot of frequent-flyer miles, this guy. But he's gone several times to a specific city where there is an arena that's too big and an arena that's too small. The answer they gave us, We will build you a new one. And they did. It's too big.

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"Then we have to look at how do you put the specific lights that we need in order to present the Laver Cup the way we've presented it. So that, all of a sudden, becomes something that is — I don't mind investing in the event, I don't mind losing money, but it becomes so cost-prohibitive that at some point you say to yourself, Well, you know, it doesn't work at the moment.

"But if you see all around the world in some different places, they are building some state-of-the-art arenas, facilities, areas, entertainment areas, and the good news is we are looking at all of them. We hope to be able to go visit other markets at some point, but it's not as easy as we thought when we conceptualised it."

Laver Cup schedule for day two of the 2026 edition

Action on day two will get underway with Team Europe's Flavio Cobolli taking on 20-year-old Learner Tien of Team World. Then, US Open champion Alexander Zverev will get his Laver Cup campaign underway versus Alex de Minaur.

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Carlos Alcaraz will play his first singles match of the Laver Cup in the night session against Taylor Fritz. The Spaniard is seeking revenge after the American defeated him last year in a shocking upset en route to Team World hoisting the trophy.

The final match of the day will be a doubles clash between the duo of Casper Ruud and Zverev and Team World's Alexander Bublik and Brandon Nakashima.

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