Italy’s Matteo Berrettini, Norway’s Casper Ruud and Andrey Rublev of Russia gave Team Europe a winning start to the Laver Cup in Boston.
Berrettini beat Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada 6-7 (3-7) 7-5 10-8 in a match tie-break after Ruud had defeated American Reilly Opelka 6-3 7-6 (7-4).
Then Rublev’s 4-6 6-3 11-9 victory over Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman further strengthened Team Europe’s position.
Team World later avoided an opening day whitewash with a doubles victory.
Canada’s Denis Shapovalov and American John Isner saw off Berrettini and Germany’s Alexander Zverev 4-6 7-6 (7-2) 10-1 in the first doubles match to make it 3-1 overall.
It is the fourth edition of the Laver Cup, which sees six men’s players from Team Europe and Team World contest a series of singles and doubles matches.
Berrettini, Ruud and Rublev are joined by Russian world number two and US Open champion Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, and Germany’s Zverev on Team Europe.
Europe, captained by Bjorn Borg, have won all three previous editions of the competition – which did not take place in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Nick Kyrgios of Australia joins Shapovalov, Schwartzman, Isner, Auger-Aliassime and Opelka on John McEnroe’s Team World.
The three-day event sees one point awarded for a victory on day one, two for wins on day two and three on the final day.
