“It’s stressful,” he admitted during a live edition of Served when asked what Andre Agassi and Yannick Noah, the current captains, would be feeling as the 2025 edition got underway. “They’re questioning the decisions they made — the picks, how it’s going to work out — and hoping there’s still some fun in it. It’s a great event; I did it for seven years and loved it. But in the moment, it feels like a lot’s at stake.”
For McEnroe, the Laver Cup has always been an uphill battle for Team World, given Europe’s depth of top players. But the challenge was also what drove him. “Ultimately, as a captain, you try to make that tiny little bit of difference — maybe five percent — that could be the difference between winning and losing,” he said . If singles stars usually grab headlines, McEnroe has long believed that doubles often decides the Laver Cup. The loss of players like Ben Shelton and Tommy Paul — both dangerous in singles and strong in doubles — struck him as especially costly.
“Doubles is more important than people think — critically important at the end,” McEnroe said. “The first year Team World finally won, Felix Auger-Aliassime had to play doubles even though he didn’t really want to. He ended up playing Novak in singles, too. We were way behind on the last day — the day with the most points. That’s why the format’s set up the way it is: it ain’t over till it’s over.”
