Tennis to launch Ryder Cup-style event

Australian tennis legend Rod Laver has put his name to a proposed new men's team event styled on golf's Ryder Cup.

The Laver Cup - created by the agency that represents Roger Federer - will kick off in 2017, the New York Times has reported.

The annual three-day event will involve a six-strong European team taking on the rest of the world in singles and doubles.

The planned event would be played annually in late September, but not in Olympic years.

Europe would likely dominate - at least in its early years - with the world's top six players, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Federer, Rafael Nadal, Stan Wawrinka and Tomas Berdych, all available for selection.

The highest-placed non-European on the current singles rankings is world No.7 Kei Nishikori from Japan.

Twenty of the top 25 are from Europe.

"All the European players now, they seem to be in the driver's seat, but I think it will be a fair competition, and I think it will be very competitive," Laver told the NY Times.

"It's a unique concept in tennis. It's in golf, and it's been successful any time they've done it with the Ryder Cup and the Presidents Cup."

Laver, the only man to win two calendar grand slams, will select the captains for the inaugural edition of the event in 2017.