Team Europe capped a dominant campaign in Boston with a doubles victory first up on Sunday to win its fourth straight Laver Cup.
Andrey Rublev and Alexander Zverev beat Team World’s Reilly Opelka and Denis Shapovalov 6-2 6-7(4) [10-3] – a result that earned Team Europe an unassailable 14-1 lead over the hosts at TD Garden.
In the four-year history of the competition it is by far Team Europe’s most commanding victory over Team World.
"This year I had two really emotional moments. One one them was Olympic gold medal and this week is the second,” said Rublev, who earned a team-high six points for Team Europe after wins on all three days of the event.
“I think we have amazing connection with all the guys.
“It’s something that’s gonna stay forever with me and be a special moment, and for sure I’m gonna miss this week a lot.”
With all six Team Europe members ranked inside the top 10, the visiting squad was a strong favourite to overcome Team World, whose highest-ranked singles player was world No.11 Felix Auger-Aliassime.
Team World captain John McEnroe was nevertheless proud of the effort of his team, who had several chances – especially on Day 1 – to make the scoreline much tighter.
“Team Europe is a great team, no question, incredible team. They had good team spirit. We did, as well,” McEnroe reflected.
“If you get a couple of different results, we could have put more pressure on them. But we just came up short in four tiebreakers. You win half those, it’s a totally different story.
“We gave it our best, but they were just too good.”
"No one...beats @JohnMcEnroe five times in a row in Laver Cup."
— Laver Cup (@LaverCup) September 26, 2021
The Team World Captain takes some inspiration from the late Vitas Gerulaitis. #LaverCup pic.twitter.com/hqqN9P7KlB
For Team Europe captain Bjorn Borg, it was a fourth consecutive Laver Cup trophy, following wins in Prague (2017), Chicago (2018) and Geneva (2019).
Even without legendary trio Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, Team Europe – featuring the sport’s newest Grand Slam champion in Daniil Medvedev plus Olympic champion Zverev and 2021 major finalists Stefanos Tsitsipas and Matteo Berrettini – showcased impressive depth and versatility.
“For me personally as captain it’s the most important week in the year for me. I think we all are very happy to defend our title,” Borg said.
“These are six guys who (are) the future of tennis. They play unbelievable tennis. Just to put together what we did as a team, it’s unbelievable.
“(A few matches were) very close, but it went our way. And I’m very happy.”
Team World will try to notch its first Laver Cup triumph next year when the event heads to London’s O2 Arena, previously the long-standing venue of the ATP Finals.