Team Europe heavy favourites ahead of 2024 Laver Cup

With the seventh edition of the Laver Cup beginning this Friday, tennis betting sites have installed four-time champions Team Europe as heavy favourites to prevail in Berlin.

Bovada puts Team Europe at -400 to claim their fifth title, while Team World are at long odds of +300 to win their third Laver Cup in a row.

The event, which has tennis players from Europe squaring off against players from the rest of the world, has some of the biggest names in the sport in attendance.

For Team Europe, five of their six players are in the world’s top 10, with Alexander Zverev (2), Carlos Alcaraz (3), Daniil Medvedev (5), Casper Ruud (9), Grigor Dimitrov (10) and Stefanos Tsitsipas (12) representing Europe.

Team World has a trio of Americans – Taylor Fritz (7), Frances Tiafoe (16) and Ben Shelton (17) – alongside Alejandro Tabilo (22), Franciso Cerundolo (31) and Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis (78).

While Team World may be outgunned purely in terms of ranking, captain John McEnroe is confident his team can still do some damage.

“We’re going to go out guns blazing,” the American declared on Thursday in Berlin.

“We’ve got a great group.

“There is a lot of energy in that building right now, and it’s going to be even more over the weekend.

“We’re pumped up to give it our best shot.”

Day one of the Laver Cup will see four matches take place – three singles and one doubles – with Team World underdogs in all matches.

First up, Cerundolo takes on Ruud, with the Argentinian a +137 underdog to win.

Next, Kokkinakis squares off against Tsitsipas. Despite having beaten the Greek recently in New York, Bovada has the Aussie as the outsider, with Tsitsipas favoured at -175.44.

Laver Cup debutant Tabilo is the biggest underdog of the day, with the Chilean marked as a -666.67 chance to upset Dimitrov.

The last match of the day – a doubles clash between Team Europe’s Alcaraz and Zverev, and Team World’s Fritz and Shelton – may well be Team World’s best shot at points on Friday.

Fritz and Shelton are underdogs, but only just, with odds of +100 to win, while Alcaraz and Zverev are at -125.

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