The Laver Cup is, in the organisers’ own words, “a tournament unlike any other” in tennis.
Six of the finest European men’s players face off against counterparts from the rest of the world in a three-day event in which team victory is what counts.
While this is a sport that often seems a somewhat lonely pursuit, particularly for those players who don’t usually partake in doubles matches, the Laver Cup offers a collaborative shot at glory. Team Europe and Team World representatives play singles and doubles matches against each other to compete for points, and the team with the most points at the end of the weekend wins. You can see why it’s been referred to as the Ryder Cup of tennis.
Singles and doubles participants are roared on court-side by their teammates, which can make for some brilliant spectacles — not least when a match is decided by a dramatic final-set tie-break.
The Sporting News looks at how those match tie-breaks work, and why they are a little different to those seen in the majors.
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Laver Cup tie-break rules: How the match tiebreaker works
All Laver Cup matches are best of three sets, both in singles and doubles. If a player (or pair) wins the first two sets, they win the match. If it’s 1-1 after those two sets, a third set is played, but as a so-called super or match tie-break.
This is where a deciding set is played in a tie-break format, albeit one with a slight difference. In a normal tie-break — those used to decide a set of tennis when the scores are 6-6 — the first player to reach seven points and with a two-point lead wins the set. In a match tie-break, a player must reach a minimum of 10 points with a two-point lead. The first to do so wins the tie-break, and the match.
The player who was due to serve first in the set takes the first serve of the tie-break. From there, the play alternates, with the server changing after every two points. That means a player must win at least one point against the other’s serve in order to win the breaker.
Unlike the modern grand-slam tournaments, in which deciding sets are played as normal and a match tie-break used only if the scores are level at six games each, third sets in the Laver Cup go straight into the tie-break decider.
Matches that go to a deciding tie-break are still scored the same way overall in the tournament: the winner earns one point if the match is on the Friday, two if it’s on the Saturday, and three if it’s on the Sunday.
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How often have match tie-breaks been played in the Laver Cup?
Match tie-breaks are pretty common at the Laver Cup given the high level of competition. In the inaugural edition in 2017, six matches went to a decider, including the final singles contest, in which Roger Federer defeated Nick Kyrgios 4–6, 7–6 (8–6), [11–9].
Overall, 40 Laver Cup matches in history have been decided by a match tie-break. The most recent came in 2025, when Jakub Mensik prevailed over Alex Michelsen 6-1, 6-7 (3-7), [10-8].
The most in any one edition was in 2018 and 2019, when eight match tie-breaks took place; the fewest was in 2023 — when the doubles match between Arthur Fils / Andrey Rublev and Tommy Paul / Frances Tiafoe was the only one to go to three sets — before the Mensik-Michelsen match last year. Paul and Tiafoe triumphed 3–6, 6–4, [6–10] to help Team World to an emphatic 13-2 victory.
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