Carlos Alcaraz will not hit a singles ball on the opening day of the Laver Cup. When the Friday lineups for The O2 were announced on Thursday, Team Europe captain Yannick Noah had put his best player where he put him a year ago in San Francisco: in the night-session doubles, alongside Jakub Mensik.
The ninth edition opens at 1 p.m. with Casper Ruud against Francisco Cerundolo, a rematch of the first match of the 2024 event in Berlin. Cerundolo won that one 6-4, 6-4, and it is still Ruud’s only singles defeat at the Laver Cup, according to the organizers. Across the tour the two are close. Cerundolo leads their head-to-head 5-4, but Ruud won the most recent meeting, a Madrid semifinal in 2025, 6-4, 7-5.
The lineups are set by blind draw. Noah and Team World captain Andre Agassi submitted theirs on Wednesday without seeing each other’s, and the organizers published them on Thursday. Every Friday match is worth one point and is played on the event’s black indoor hard court.
The Friday lineup. All times are London time (BST), with U.S. Eastern in brackets.
- Day session, 1 p.m. (8 a.m. ET): Casper Ruud (Europe) v Francisco Cerundolo (World), followed by Jakub Mensik (Europe) v Brandon Nakashima (World).
- Night session, 7 p.m. (2 p.m. ET): Rafael Jodar (Europe) v Alexander Bublik (World), followed by Mensik and Alcaraz (Europe) v Bublik and Taylor Fritz (World).
The organizers note that the night session can start late if the day session runs long.
Mensik and Nakashima. The organizers bill the second match as a meeting of two of the tour’s biggest servers. Nakashima, 25, makes his Laver Cup debut after replacing Ben Shelton on Team World, and he won their only tour-level meeting, 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-4 in Washington this summer, on his way to the semifinals there. He arrives at a career-high No. 16, according to the organizers, after a summer that took in the Montreal final and the Cincinnati semifinals. Mensik, 21, won the Miami Masters in 2025 and played for Europe in San Francisco last year.
Jodar and Bublik. The night session opens with two Laver Cup debutants who have never played each other. Jodar, who turned 20 only days ago, is the one first-timer on Noah’s roster. A year ago he was ranked No. 325; this week he is No. 14, according to the organizers.
“I try not to be impatient,” Jodar told LaverCup.com on Wednesday. “I’m aware that this is my first year, that I’ve been on tour for only eight months.”
Bublik, who broke into the Top 10 earlier this season, is one of two players scheduled twice on Friday.
The doubles. Mensik and Alcaraz started Europe’s campaign in San Francisco last year too, beating Alex de Minaur and Alex Michelsen 7-6(7), 6-4. This time they meet a first-time pairing in Fritz and Bublik. Mensik and Bublik will both be playing their second match of the day.
What it means for Saturday. Six players have no singles match on Friday: Alcaraz, Alexander Zverev and Flavio Cobolli for Europe, and Fritz, Alex de Minaur and Learner Tien for World. The event’s rules require every player to play at least one singles match in the first two days, and Saturday’s schedule holds three singles. Unless a team brings in an alternate, Saturday’s singles will be drawn from those six, three a side, at two points a match.
Europe, as hosts, chose to select first on Saturday and second on Sunday. Saturday’s lineup is announced an hour after Friday’s night session ends.
Zverev comes to London as the US Open champion, 12 days after the final in New York. “[Zverev] is probably the best player in the world right now, so having him by my side is going to be a great weapon that we are going to use,” Alcaraz said in London, according to the ATP Tour.
Where it stands. Team World are the defending champions after beating Europe 15-9 in San Francisco last September. Europe have won five of the eight previous editions. The first team to 13 of the 24 available points takes the cup, and with Sunday matches worth three points each, no Friday lead is safe. The full schedule, rosters and broadcast details are in our Laver Cup 2026 guide, the two teams’ alternates are covered here, and the format is explained in Laver Cup Explained. Every past result is in Laver Cup Winners.
