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Europe cruise to Laver Cup triumph

(Agence France-Presse) (The Jakarta Post)
Los Angeles/Metz/Nur Sultan
Tue, September 28, 2021

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Europe cruise to Laver Cup triumph

E

urope completed a fourth consecutive victory in the Laver Cup team tennis tournament on Sunday, with doubles duo Andrey Rublev and Alexander Zverev downing Reilly Opelka and Denis Shapovalov to seal a 14-1 rout.

After a dominant day on Saturday which saw Team Europe win all four matches against Team World at Boston's TD Garden, the Europeans needed only one win on Sunday to seal victory.

It arrived in the opening match of the final day, with Russia's Rublev and Germany's Olympic champion Zverev defeating Opelka and Shapovalov 6-2, 6-7 (4/7), 10-3.

The win extends Europe's unbroken reign of dominance in the tournament following wins in 2019 (Geneva), 2018 (Chicago) and 2017 (Prague).

The Laver Cup pits six top European players against six of their counterparts from the rest of the world.

Europe was heavy favorites to retain its crown with a team packed with six top-10 players including US Open champion Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Zverev, Rublev, Matteo Berrettini and Casper Ruud.

The event is played over three days. Each day four matches are played — three singles and a doubles — with the first team to reach 13 points declared the winner. 

Meanwhile, Poland's Hubert Hurkacz won his third title of 2021 on Sunday when he defeated Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta 7-6 (7/2), 6-3 in the Metz ATP final.

World No. 13 Hurkacz, who reached the Wimbledon semifinals in July, added the French tournament to triumphs at Delray Beach and the Miami Masters earlier this season.

"Pablo is an amazing player, so playing against him in the final here is something special," said top seed Hurkacz who did not drop a set all week.

"I needed to raise my level to play my best to be able to compete with him and today I came out on top and I am super, super happy about this."

Hurkacz, 24, who also defeated former world number one Andy Murray on his way to the Metz title, is still in with a chance of reaching the season-ending ATP Finals to be held in Turin from November 14-21.

Elsewhere, South Korea's Kwon Soon-woo captured his first ATP Tour title on Sunday with a 7-6 (8/6), 6-3 win over Australian James Duckworth in the Astana Open final.

The 23-year-old Kwon, ranked 82 in the world, defeated three seeds en route to the final and saved three set points against Duckworth in the first set tie-break.

He became the ninth first-time champion on the ATP circuit this year, and just the second Korean man to win a tour-level title in the Open era, following Lee Hyung-taik's win in Sydney in 2003.

"To win the title as a Korean, it has been 18 years and it means a lot to me and I am really proud of myself," Kwon told ATPTour.com.

"I feel great and really happy for myself and my team and all the people supporting me from Korea."

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