Federer, a founder of the Laver Cup, said the court was a part of the tournament’s aesthetic.

“The black court is the centerpiece of a really cool, contemporary look over all that is such a big part of how people identify with the Laver Cup,” Federer said in an email last week .

“The whole arena is dramatic, with the lighting, the screens around the court, the team colors and benches — all innovations that haven’t ever really been a part of tennis before. As a player, it’s fun to mix things up and compete in a very different atmosphere to our usual weeks on the tour. And I hope that what we’ve done with the Laver Cup, by doing things a bit differently and with a 21st-century outlook, will help bring new fans to tennis.”

The Cup, which will be held from Friday to Sunday , is modeled after the match play of the Ryder Cup , golf’s annual team tournament. Each Laver Cup team has six players and a captain. The captain of Team Europe is Bjorn Borg , and the captain of Team World is John McEnroe . Three of the six players qualify based on their ATP singles ranking as of the Monday after the French Open. Three captain’s picks are announced by the start of the United States Open.

Developers say the court plays medium-fast. Most players, who describe the court as playing somewhat slower than what they are used to, like the court.

Captains like it, too.

“It looks cool,” McEnroe said in an interview last week . “I was taken aback a little bit at first, but I think the players are into it. It seems like a win. It’s something different. It’s got a quality to it you don’t see. There’s an intensity to it.

“It favors bigger players,” McEnroe said. “ John Isner was dangerous the first couple years we played. So was Kevin Anderson . Big guys sometimes like it a little slower because usually the ball bounces up higher. They don’t react quite as quickly as these superstars like Roger, Rafa [Nadal] and Novak [Djokovic] , who rely on their athleticism.”