(Vancouver) Ben Shelton, Francisco Cerundolo, Félix Auger-Aliassime and the duo of Tommy Paul and Frances Tiafoe won the first four matches of the Laver Cup tournament on Friday, giving Team World a 4-0 lead against ‘Team Europe.
At the start of the evening program, Auger-Aliassime had the best 6-4, 6-3 over Frenchman Gaël Monfils, increasing his team’s lead to 3-0 against Team Europe.
Auger-Aliassime and Monfils also faced each other at the Laver Cup three years ago.
Shelton beat Arthur Fils 7-6 (4), 6-1 in the first match, and Cerundolo then beat Alejandro Davidovich-Fokina 6-3, 7-5.
Shelton won 85% of his points in first serves and made both breaks of serve of the match in the second set.
Aged 19, Fils played his first match at the Laver Cup. The Frenchman led 4-1 in the tiebreaker, before seeing his opponent take the set with six points in a row.
Shelton then continued the momentum, breaking Son’s serve early in the second set to make it 3-1.
Cerundolo had four aces. His serve was very useful to him in the victory, even if he sometimes had difficulty ending the match.
In doubles, Tommy Paul and Frances Tiafoe of Team World defeated Fils and Andrey Rublev of Team Europe (6-3, 4-6, 10-6) to conclude the day on Friday.
