Hey, everyone …
• Here’s this week’s Served podcast:
• I encourage you to read this tennis-heavy obituary of Sally Wilson Smith.
• We will get back to Q&A next week, but I spent the weekend in London for the Laver Cup, so here are some notes and observations from the event.
• This event is not perfect. We can—and some fans will—pick nits. (See below.) Fine. With that said, the Laver Cup is a real tennis triumph and a welcome addition to the calendar and the sport. It does so much, so well. The lineage and linking of generations is not just poignant, but helpful to today’s players and their appreciation of history.
AA knows the game of tennis 🎾 https://t.co/tcFcAa1E4g
— Boris Becker (@TheBorisBecker) September 26, 2026
The showcase for players—how many fans watched and didn’t come away with an enhanced regard for, say, Learner Tien or Rafael Jódar or Brandon Nakashima?—is the kind of marketing that money can’t buy. Players are fully bought in and committed not just to winning but to the team concept. This has become an event where brands and tennis chiefs come to mingle and do business. In keeping with Roger Federer, it’s a buttoned-up operation, from its broadcast production to its social media game to the uncommonly helpful volunteer corps. Total win for the sport.
• Team Europe—which won the first four events—got back on the board this year, beating Team World. Both teams had plenty of standout performances, but this doubled as a Carlos Alcaraz showcase. Between his irrepressible tennis and his irrepressible personality, it was—and is—the perfect stage for tennis’s most magnetic player. Talent plus commitment plus joy is quite the equation.
• For a few players, this doubled as career mouthwash, so to speak. Casper Ruud is in the throes of a meh year, having just missed the U.S. Open due to injury. He won a pair of matches for Team Europe. Alex de Minaur has also had a middling year. His come-from-behind takedown of Alexander Zverev will rank among the highlights of his 2026. Jódar struggled to win games at the U.S. Open. In London, he showed why he’s moved up in the rankings at roughly the rate of a point per day over the past year.
• There were also setbacks. Zverev lost to de Minaur, choking while serving for the match. Because of the format, he returned a few hours later, won in doubles, and then returned on Sunday to close out the singles.
• A few of you wrote in, noting—as many have done in the past—the absence of women. Honestly, I’m of two minds here. Yes, for optics, but also for competitive balance, it would be great to have women in the field. Note how many American women fill the sport’s upper ranks. Apart from the Americans, Alexandra Eala, Elena Rybakina and Naomi Osaka would represent Team World. On the other hand, Europeans have won the past six majors.
At the same time, the Laver Cup is a business, not a charity. If there were a business case for a women’s equivalent (the Chris Evert–Martina Navratilova Cup? The Venus-Serena Cup?), no one is preventing an investor or promoter from running with the concept.
• The Laver Cup will celebrate its 10th anniversary in Los Angeles next year, with the event at the Inuit Dome, a fantastic venue. (Insert Uncle Dennis joke here. Too soon?) Perhaps after that, the next Team World host site will be in Asia, or at least outside of North America for the first time.
• Some nits? The black court is arresting, and the speed is way too slow. (Says one Hall of Famer, “At least on clay, the ball bounces.”) So many players, from Alexander Bublik to Flavio Cobolli to Taylor Fritz, had a hard time penetrating the court, both on serve and in rallies. The distinction between Europe vs. the World is silly and artificial. ATP involvement is unnecessary when no points are at stake, and playing decisions are discretionary.
• Chiefs from the four majors attended not just to schmooze, but to conduct business. Some agenda items: putting forth a slate of player candidates for the Grand Slam Player Advisory Council. (Will players vote on these names—predictable ones, though neither Alcaraz nor Jannik Sinner seems interested—or will the four majors try to appoint the panel?) Will the majors try to reignite the Premier Tour idea from a few years ago? (Yes, but likely down the road, perhaps at Indian Wells, not in 2026.) Will the majors step in and try to invest in a beleaguered WTA? (Perhaps, but it will help if management cuts costs, some of the seven-figure executive salaries get slashed, and the CVC private equity albatross is somehow confronted.)
• If Bublik had continued to represent Russia (his country of birth), he would have been on Team Europe. Kazakhstan, though, gave him Team World designation.
• I had the good fortune of spending some time with Andre Agassi, who reiterated that if he commits to something, he’s all in. Add Laver Cup captain to that bill of particulars. Again, he was thoroughly invested, tailoring messages to players, agonizing about lineups and tactics, conferring with his coaching staff. On the other side of the pleather couch, Yannick Noah was decidedly more comfortable, engaged, and vocal than he had been in 2025.
• John McEnroe remarked that Alcaraz, if he so chooses, could be the world’s No. 1 doubles player. He wasn’t exaggerating. On Friday, Alcaraz shared the court with Bublik, Fritz and Jakub Menšík; none were slouches. To even the most casual fan, it was clear that Alcaraz possessed a celestial level of talent—the hands, reaction time, joie de vivre that suggested he was making art, not performing work—the others lacked.
• I posted this to X on Saturday:
Heresy time: @lavercup playing a first-to-ten tiebreak in lieu of a decisive set is something tennis ought to consider broadly. Said no fan today: “You know, I wish they would have played that out.” Plenty of entertainment. Plenty of tennis. And matches stayed in the 2:00 range.
— Jon Wertheim (@jon_wertheim) September 26, 2026
The responses were not favorable. We don’t have to agree on everything, but facts have to matter. The sport has an injury problem. (What a pity that Jack Draper, the best British player since Andy Murray, was not available and has, in fact, shut it down for the year.) Tennis has a physicality problem. Tennis has a duration problem, as most recently evidenced by a match ending at 3:33 a.m. local time during the U.S. Open. Complaints are easy to come by, solutions less so. But many constituents are thinking about changes, both for player health and fan enjoyment. Jim Courier has floated the idea of doing away with Ad scoring. The new Australian Open chief suggested (and then walked back) the idea of no best-of-five matches. You may agree or disagree, but the idea that this is idle media complaining, or that nothing needs changing, doesn’t align with reality or the conversation on the ground.
• We often talk about Fritz’s tennis nerdiness and his level of retention, perception and attention to detail. It was on full display at the Laver Cup. So much so, his teammates—opponents the rest of the year—turned to him for mid-match guidance. I asked Tim Henman which athlete served as Team Europe’s de facto player-coach. His response? Ruud.
• Zverev won the U.S. Open, played Davis Cup and competed last weekend in London; otherwise, it was a relaxing September. Now he'll keep burying the accelerator as he pursues his first No. 1 ranking, which he should earn by year’s end, given both his form and Sinner’s iffy status. Love, hate or feel ambivalent about the guy, we must all agree on this: He is the ATP’s 2026 MVP.
• It’s strange that Sinner has never availed himself to the Laver Cup, especially when he had committed to the Six Kings Slam.
• By accident or design, it was refreshing to attend a sporting event that wasn’t tainted by sports gambling sponsors, signage and gimmicks.
• Roastmaster Andre Agassi:
• We had a great time doing the Served podcast pregame events. Thanks to everyone who came out. Speaking for Andy Roddick, we appreciate the in-person support, the happy opportunity to meet so many of you and hearing your suggestions. (More Andy Murray—got it.)
HAVE A GOOD WEEK EVERYONE, WE’LL BE BACK WITH Q&A NEXT WEEK.
