Dramatic to the end, the inaugural Laver Cup came down to the last – and arguably best – of the competition’s dozen matches as Roger Federer fought back to beat Nick Kyrgios 4-6 7-6(6) [11-9] and secure the first title for Team Europe.
The O? arena was a wall of noise as the most compelling singles showdown of the weekend delivered a high-wire act of a match, Kyrgios coming within a point of dragging Team World from 9-3 down at the start of the final day into the winner-takes-all doubles decider.
In the end, however, Federer sealed the title in a match tiebreak – the sixth of the weekend, and 18th tiebreak in all – recovering from 8-5 down and saving a match point at 9-8 to secure Team Europe’s triumph.
“I was ready to go – I had to be,” said Federer, who ended up contributing three victories and six points to the hosts’ 15-9 victory.
“That’s what a team member does. The boys played fantastic all weekend, but we knew it could change very quickly on Sunday. The Team World boys have been great, in the doubles especially, and we knew it was going to be tough. I was looking at getting ready for a doubles at the very end. I’m very pleased and relieved that we did win the singles and got it done.”
“I’m most proud of these guys – they fought with their heart and soul and put everything into this,” John McEnroe said in tribute to his underdog squad during the trophy ceremony. “And we were so, so close to pulling this off.”
Total tournament attendance – 83,273
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TEAM EUROPE defeated TEAM WORLD 15-9
| PTS | |||||
| MATCH 1 | Marin Cilic | d | Frances Tiafoe | 7-6(3) 7-6(0) | 1 |
| MATCH 2 | Dominic Thiem | d | John Isner | 6-7(15) 7-6(2) [10-7] | 1 |
| MATCH 3 | Alexander Zverev | d | Denis Shapovalov | 7-6(3) 7-6(5) | 1 |
| MATCH 4 | Nick Kyrgios / Jack Sock | d | Tomas Berdych / Rafael Nadal | 6-3 6-7(7) [10-7] | 1 |
| MATCH 5 | Roger Federer | d | Sam Querrey | 6-4 6-2 | 2 |
| MATCH 6 | Rafael Nadal | d | Jack Sock | 6-3 3-6 [11-9] | 2 |
| MATCH 7 | Nick Kyrgios | d | Tomas Berdych | 4-6 7-6(4) [10-6] | 2 |
| MATCH 8 | Roger Federer / Rafael Nadal |
d
|
Sam Querrey / Jack Sock |
6-4 1-6 [10-5] | 2 |
| MATCH 9 | John Isner / Jack Sock | d | Tomas Berdych / Marin Cilic | 7-6(5) 7-6(6) | 3 |
| MATCH 10 | Alexander Zverev | d | Sam Querrey | 6-4 6-4 | 3 |
| MATCH 11 | John Isner | d | Rafael Nadal | 7-5 7-6(1) | 3 |
| MATCH 12 | Roger Federer | d | Nick Kyrgios | 4-6 7-6(6) [11-9] | 3 |
