Laver Cup 2018: How does it work, where will it be shown and what players are competing?

After a successful introduction last year, the Laver Cup returns this weekend in Chicago with Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic among the world's best players taking to the court.

Twelve months ago it was Team Europe, led by captain Bjorn Borg and featuring both Federer and Rafael Nadal, who came out on top after beating Team World 15-9. 

Will they defend their crown at the United Center from Sept 21-23? Or can John McEnroe's team turn the tables?

What is it?

Named after Australian tennis legend Rod Laver, the annual competition was the brainchild of 20-time Grand Slam winner Federer who was able to use his global standing to bring major sponsors on board and get the idea off the ground.

Tennis' version of golf's Ryder Cup, it pits six players from Team Europe against six from the rest of the world across three days of competition, two weeks after the US Open.

Four of the six players qualify based on their ATP singles ranking following Wimbledon with two additional 'captain's picks' announced after the US Open.

Each team is led by a team captain who is a legend of the sport. Eleven-time Grand Slam winner Borg has the honour for Team Europe with former rival McEnroe doing the same for Team World.

Where is it? 

The location rotates between Europe and the rest of the world cities each year. With Prague playing host to the inaugural competition, this year the American city of Chicago will put on the event at the United Center.

Laver Cup rules dictate the competition will always be played on one competition hard court in a retractable roof stadium or indoor arena. 

Where can I watch and when?

The 2018 Laver Cup will be shown on both Sky Sports and Amazon Prime.  

The first session gets underway on Friday at 1pm (7pm BST) with the night session at 7pm (1am BST). Saturday's sessions follow the same timings with Sunday's action commencing at 12pm (6pm BST).

Friday and Saturday see three singles matches before a doubles match with the order switched on day three.

How does scoring work?

Both singles and doubles are best-of-three sets with a third set played as a 10-point match tiebreaker. Each match is worth one point on Friday, two on Saturday and three on Sunday.

In the event of a 12-all tie on day three, a doubles set with a tiebreaker will decide the champion. The winning team must reach 13 points.

Each player plays at least one singles match during the first two days, with no individual allowed to play more than two singles matches during the event. At least four of the six players must play doubles and no combination can be played more than once (unless for a required doubles title decider). 

Match-ups will be determined after the end of each day's play through the exchange of lineup cards by the captains. 

Who is playing?

Team Europe features tennis royalty in Federer once again but there will be no repeat of him teaming up with Nadal on the doubles court.

The Spaniard has not been selected, part in due to a scheduling conflict with the Davis Cup and part due to a knee injury suffered during the US Open.

Instead it is Djokovic, winner in New York two weeks ago, who comes in while British fans have interest in world number 23 Kyle Edmund. Alexander Zverev, Grigor Dimitrov and David Goffin make up the six players.

Team World will be led by Wimbledon runner-up Kevin Anderson in the absence of Juan Martin del Potro.

The Argentine pulled out of the event earlier this week following his exploits at the US Open where he reached the final and Frances Tiafoe has slotted into his place.

Unpredictable Australian Nick Kyrgios is also on the team as is big-serving John Isner, Diego Schwartzman and Jack Sock.