Ben Shelton and Daniil Medvedev contested a tight match at the 2024 Laver Cup in Berlin, which the American ended up winning after three sets.
After an exciting doubles match, in which Carlos Alcaraz and Casper Ruud outplayed Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe, Shelton stepped out onto the court once more on the final day of the 2024 Laver Cup.
He faced Medvedev in a must-win match for both teams, as the score was 8-7 for Team World ahead of the meeting. It's the event's final day, so every match counts for three points. The first team to 13 points wins, so both teams needed to win two of the three remaining matches to win the event overall.
The first of those was this match between Medvedev and Shelton. The Russian was the nominal favorite because not only did he not exert any energy before this match, but he's also generally considered the better player.
That didn’t shake the resolve of Shelton, though, who came out strong. He was very aggressive, going to the net often in a likely attempt to shorten the points and avoid playing those long and grueling rallies that are common in a match against Medvedev.
It was generally a very fast-paced match, as neither player struggled too much on serve. The former World No. 1 was serving very well in this match, barely losing any points on his serve.
In a match like that, it was only obvious that the first set would end up in a tie-break, but it almost didn't, as Medvedev struggled in the 12th game of the opening set. His two unforced errors made it 15-30 and a little bit uncomfortable, and then a double fault from the Russian made it 30-40.
His serve went missing in this game, but a timely ace saved it. Eventually, the set ended in a tie-break, which was hard-fought from both sides. While Shelton opened well, the Russian was able to turn things around and make it 4-2.
However, from there, Medvedev kind of lost it as Shelton made it 6-4 after four points in a row. As a result, the Russian player threw his racket in frustration. It was a very dangerous throw by the Russian as he flung it towards the courtside seats, which Shelton pointed out to the umpire, likely thinking it could be enough for a disqualification of his opponent.
However, maybe also because of the exhibition nature of the event, Medvedev wasn’t defaulted by umpire Mohamed Lahyani.
Still, that racket throw likely helped Medvedev who was able to win that opening-set tie-break 8-6, coming back from 4-6 down.
Shelton stabilized a bit after that and did not allow his opponent too many chances, even though the Russian pushed, trying to win the match in two sets. The second set opened solidly for both players, but the sixth game was the most important one.
Despite being down 0-40, Shelton fought back, saving four break points to keep himself alive in the match. Medvedev blew a massive chance to secure the match, so the battle continued.
Medvedev ran into some trouble at 5-5, and while it seemed like he could escape it, he didn't as Shelton broke for the 6-5 lead. He had a chance to send the match into a match tie-break, and he did just that, winning the set 7-5.
It was another close tie-break, with the momentum swinging back and forth. It was 5-5 after 10 points and 8-6 for Shelton after 14 points. Eventually, the American won it 10-7 to win the match 6-7(6), 7-5, 10-7 and give Team World 11-7 lead in the 2024 Laver Cup.
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