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Laver Cup newcomers Ben Shelton and Francisco Cerundolo notched crisp victories and Felix Auger-Aliassime pulled off a testy triumph over Gael Monfils as Team World opened their title defense Friday with four victories.
US Open semi-finalist Shelton of the United States put Team World on the path to a 4-0 lead with a 7-6 (7/4), 6-1 victory over Team Europe’s Arthur Fils of France.
Argentina’s Cerundolo followed with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain — the first time that Team World had led after the opening session of the team tennis event.
Auger-Aliassime, whose Sunday singles win over Novak Djokovic was key to Team World’s win last year, opened the night session with a 6-4, 6-3 win over French veteran Monfils, whose lighthearted approach to the contest rubbed the Canadian the wrong way.
Auger-Aliassime was irked when Monfils briefly took a seat near a line judge rather than preparing to receive serve, pointedly asking the umpire if he planned to enforce competitive match rules.
An underhand serve from Monfils didn’t improve Auger-Aliassime’s mood. The Canadian’s complaints seemed to send Monfils into a spiral that saw him surrender the opening set with a service break that featured a double fault and three forehand errors.
Monfils pulled himself together to give himself a triple break chance in the opening game of the second set. He couldn’t capitalize, however, and once Auger-Aliassime broke him in the second game the Canadian was able to cruise home, the two exchanging a hug when it was all over.
“Things get tense on the court sometimes,” Auger-Aliassime said of his heated exchanges with Monfils on a couple of first-set changeovers.
“Only one guy gets the win in the end, so you try your best to stay cool but at the same time to stand up for yourself.
“That’s what I was trying to do, get the energy going and just try to not let him take too much ground, I guess.”
The day started with a strong showing from Shelton, the 20-year-old whose sensational run to the US Open last four saw him rise to 19th in the world.
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Fils, a 19-year-old who earned his first ATP title at Lyon in May, led the first-set tiebreaker 4-1, but Shelton won six straight points to pocket the set and grabbed a 3-1 lead in the second with the first service break of the contest.
