Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe secured the needed win to secure the 2023 Laver Cup for Team World.
Last year, Team World made history to win their first-ever Laver Cup. This year, the team led by captain John McEnroe had a difficult job, and that was to defend the title against Team Europe which was seeking revenge.
However, after Holger Rune withdrew from the tournament, and Stefanos Tsitsipas did the same thing, the chances of Bjorn Borg's Team Europe started to get smaller.
On the first two days, Team World dominated, as Team Europe managed to win only one match, and that was thanks to Casper Ruud, who was scheduled to play the second match on Day 3, but he withdrew due to an injury. Yet, to get to that match, Team Europe first needed to win a doubles match, and for that, Andrey Rublev teamed up with Hubert Hurkacz.
The two took on two Americans, Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe, and for both teams, it was a debut together. Already in the fourth game, the Russian-Polish duo had two break points, but those remained unused, and after both players held their serves comfortably, the opening set had to be decided in a tie-break.
Rublev and Hurkacz were ahead by a mini-break, leading 4-3, but they couldn't finish things off, as Shelton and Tiafoe won four consecutive points to win the opening-set tie-break 7-4.
The second set was similarly competitive, and this time around, there were no break points, as the set had to be decided in a tie-break once again, and once again, Team Europe was ahead by a mini-break.
Hurkacz and Rublev led 5-4, with the Russian player having two balls in his hand to serve out the second set. Yet, that didn't happen, as Shelton and Tiafoe won the last three points of the second set to win the match 7-6(4), 7-6(5), and secure back-to-back Laver Cup wins for Team World, first in history.
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