New era: Andre Agassi, Patrick Rafter highlight Team World's effort to regain Laver Cup

With the US Open now over, men’s tennis next week heads 3,000 miles west of New York to San Francisco, host city for the eighth edition of the one-of-a-kind Laver Cup competition that’s set to take place September 19-21.

Created and run by Roger Federer, his management team, and Tennis Australia as both a tribute to the legendary Rod Laver and a rare chance for tennis players to join forces, this unique, three-day event has proven quite successful thanks to its mix of team play, star players, iconic captains, up-close camera angles, compelling courtside dialogue, and an innovative, increasingly weighted scoring system that usually delivers suspense and drama right up to the closing day’s matches.

Defending champion Team Europe has won the Laver Cup five times, including the first four. Team World earned its first title in 2022 on the road in London and successfully defended it in Vancouver a year later.

👉 Stream the 2025 Laver Cup live on Tennis Channel

After being captained by John and Patrick McEnroe for Laver Cup’s first seven years, Team World will be guided in 2025 by a pair of Hall of Famers, Andre Agassi and Patrick Rafter. It will be fascinating to see what Agassi, an astute analyst of the game, as well as a member of three Davis Cup championship teams, will bring to the mix as he leads Team World’s six players. Ditto for Rafter, who as an Australian, hails from the nation that for decades has brought team spirit to the tennis more emphatically than any country in tennis history. Mentored extensively courtside and beyond by such Aussie icons as Tony Roche and John Newcombe, Rafter too will provide plenty of wisdom.

When it comes to the players, if experience is the best indicator, then Team World’s alpha males are a pair of Americans, Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz. Between them, these two have competed at Laver Cup nine times. Currently ranked 29 in the world, Tiafoe made his Laver Cup debut at the age of 19 in 2017 and five years later, clinched Team World’s first championship run with a dramatic win over Stefanos Tsitsipas.

“It’s an unbelievable feeling,” Tiafoe said that day. "We all did it together; it wasn’t just me. I showed a lot of heart to get this done. This is big.”

Tiafoe also won three matches when Team World took the title again in 2023. Having lost early at the US Open, Tiafoe will likely bring plenty of energy and a strong desire to make a statement in San Francisco.

Fritz, America’s highest-ranked male player at number five, has had an excellent summer—two grass-court titles, the semis of Wimbledon, and the quarters of the US Open. Still, having gone all the way to the final in New York a year ago, Fritz left New York somewhat frustrated.

Two other Team World members who’ve also played Laver Cup are Argentine Francisco Cerundolo and another American, big-serving Reilly Opelka. A top 30 mainstay for several years, the 21st-ranked Cerundolo has a compiled a 2-0 Laver Cup record. Opelka first played Laver Cup in 2021 (0-2) and reached a career-high ranking of 17 in the world the following season. But in recent years, he’s struggled with injuries. This year, Opelka has recovered. Ranked nearly 300 in the world as 2025 began, the 28-year-old Opelka has made his way back up the ranks to No. 63.

Rounding out Team World are two newcomers—each with highly different playing styles. World No. 32 Alex Michelsen plays small in a big man’s body, this 21-year-old Californian’s game an eclectic mix of tactical guile and power. Michelsen this year has reached the quarterfinals or better at six ATP Tour events. Brazilian Jose Fonseca is unquestionably 2025’s most notable teen prodigy. Backed by a tremendously powerful forehand, the 19-year-old has risen in the last 12 months from a ranking of 158 to his current spot at 42. Earlier this year, in Buenos Aires, Fonseca won his first ATP Tour title.

Part Two tomorrow will dig into Team Europe—also boasting new leaders in Yannick Noah and Tim Henman.