Team Europe have won the 2021 Laver Cup in Boston’s TD Garden. Andrey Rublev and Alexander Zverev clinched victory in the opening match on day three with a 6-2 6-7(4) 10-3 win over Team World’s Denis Shapovalov and Reilly Opelka, to give Europe a final score of 14 points to World’s one, with each win on the final day worth three points. Team Europe have now won all four editions of the Laver Cup, and did so in their most dominant fashion so far in 2021, losing just one match on the opening day in the doubles.
Team Europe came into the 2021 Laver Cup as the favourites, with their squad made up of six top-ten players – Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alexander Zverev, Andrey Rublev, Matteo Berrettini and Casper Ruud.
Although the undefeated side had the stronger team, this year marked the first edition on the event’s short history without Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic representing Europe, giving Team World arguably their best chance yet of finally winning the three-day Ryder Cup-style team tournament.
However, even in the absence of the Big Three, Team Europe continued to shine and produced their most dominant Laver Cup performance yet, with their only loss coming to John Isner and Denis Shapovalov in the doubles match on day one, as Matteo Berrettini and Alexander Zverev were edged out in the decisive match tiebreak.
Team Europe were able to bounce back on day two, winning all three singles matches and their doubles match, meaning they came into the final day with an 11-points-to-one lead, with a team needing to reach 13 for the victory, and all match wins on day three worth three points.
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Team World, led by John McEnroe, were no match for their top-ten opponents, with world No 11 Felix Auger-Aliassime the highest-ranked member of the squad, closely followed by fellow Canadian and world No 12 Denis Shapovalov.
They were joined by fellow top 25 players Diego Schwartzman, Reilly Opelka and John Isner, and world No 95 Nick Kyrgios, who has always been open on his love for competing in the Laver Cup.
Though Team World have previously been in similar positions coming into the final day, finding themselves one or two matches away from loss, they have been able to turn things around and get much-needed wins, forcing Team Europe to play extra matches in order to earn the Laver Cup crown.
However, that wasn’t the case this year as the Russian-German pairing of Rublev and Zverev quickly raced to lead Opelka and Shapovalov by a set, and were able to fend off the resurgent Team World duo to win the match 6-2 6-7(4) 10-3 and secure Team Europe a fourth successive Laver Cup title.
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