BOSTON: The pandemic-delayed fourth edition of the Laver Cup and first without Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic participating began Friday with Casper Ruud giving Team Europe a 1-0 lead over Team World by beating Reilly Opelka.
Ruud, a Norwegian ranked 10th, broke Opelka, an American ranked 19th, in the matchs third game and again to end the opening set along the way to producing a 6-3, 7-6 (4) victory on a hard court at the arena used by the NBAs Celtics and NHLs Bruins.
Opelka, whose game is built on his big serve and forehand, said afterward the setup suits him better than me and described it as slow and dead.
Its the slowest conditions Ive ever played in, the combo of the court and the ball, Opelka said.
Ruud acknowledged that worked to his advantage, as did what he said were bits of sand on the court that made it slippery.
Its fairly slow, Ruud said about the court, and his serve, I felt, wasnt that fast today as it maybe usually is, because of the surface and also the balls, the way they get after three or four games.
Team Europe has won all three Laver Cups so far, helped each time by Federer whose management company is the driving force behind the exhibition event and either Nadal or Djokovic. The members of the Big Three currently share the mens record with 20 Grand Slam titles apiece.
Djokovic is coming off a run to the final of the U.S. Open; Federer and Nadal are done for the season because of injuries.
Federer was seated courtside Friday, when later singles matches were scheduled to be Wimbledon runner-up Matteo Berrettini of Italy vs. U.S. Open semifinalist Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada, and Andrey Rublev of Russia vs. Diego Schwartzman of Argentina. The doubles matchup was slated to be Berrettini and Alexander Zverev of Germany against John Isner of the U.S. and Denis Shapovalov of Canada.
A team must reach 13 points to win the three-day competition. Each match victory is worth one point on Friday, two on Saturday and three on Sunday.
Boston was supposed to host the Laver Cup last year but it was postponed because of the coronavirus outbreak.
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