The Laver Cup came under intense scrutiny ahead of the 2026 event, but that was largely washed away after an entertaining three days of tennis.
Many were critical of the weak lineups, particularly on Team World, while many questioned whether the tournament was the right idea after so many complaints about the tennis schedule.
However, it was hard not to be entertained by London event, as Team Europe swept aside Team World to win the event for the seventh time since 2017.
The likes of Carlos Alcaraz, Alexander Zverev, and Taylor Fritz massively bought into the format of the tournament and the camaraderie between the players off the court was just as entertaining as the matches on it.
However, Rennae Stubbs has criticised the format, dubbing the Laver Cup as an ‘exhibition’.
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Speaking on her podcast, the former Grand Slam champion said: “One of the reasons why I don’t necessarily like watching the Laver Cup is because I don’t care. It’s like, it’s truly an exhibition.
“Yes, they ‘want to win’, because they like to have that little moment at the end, but it’s more like I don’t care who wins because it doesn’t mean anything. That is why I don’t watch it.
“If they want to keep doing it and it’s making all this money and the players are making money, whatever. But I don’t want to talk about it on the pod, because I just don’t think it matters.”
Stubbs believes there is one change the Laver Cup could made in order to make her interested in the format.
“I was thinking if this had women… what was one of the most exciting things at the US Open? It was the mixed doubles. So I was thinking about that and I was thinking surely someone from the TV to the ATP or the WTA have to get together,” said Stubbs.
“The Hopman Cup was so popular in Australia. So imagine if you had the greatest singles players on both the men’s and women’s side going head to head in America vs Europe. You would have Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula and you would have Rybakina and Sabalenka on the same team.”
The Hopman Cup was a team tournament which saw nations pitted against each other with both men and women competing. It was transformed into the United Cup in 2022, which is essentially the same format.
There has also been multiple calls for a women’s Laver Cup, but without the men competing at the same event.
With so many top American stars on the WTA Tour right now, it would arguably be more competitive than the men’s version to.
