A new world order is emerging, one in which youth makes no apology for upsetting the apple cart – and never mind how many grand slam trophies it may contain. 

No one at the Laver Cup has embodied that spirit more vibrantly than Frances Tiafoe, the magnetic 24-year-old American who partnered his compatriot Jack Sock to victory over Federer and Nadal on Friday night.

Teed up beautifully by his team-mate Felix Auger-Aliassime, who earlier upset Djokovic in straight sets to put Team World on the cusp of victory, Tiafoe saved four match points en route to a dramatic 1-6, 7-6 (11), 10-8 victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas, sealing a momentous 13-8 win for his team.

If it was a disappointing outcome for Federer and company, the ebullient Tiafoe was not about to apologise – least of all for his role in derailing the Swiss legend’s retirement party.

“Absolutely not,” said Tiafoe. “I want to see him lit, but I’m not going to apologise to him. He’s got a lot to apologise [for] after the last 24 years, after beating everybody on the tour.  

“No, I won’t apologise, but I will say thank you for having me in this amazing event [and] also say thank you for what he did for the game. He’s a class act. Happy to know him, happy to call him friend, happy to call him a colleague, and best wishes in his second act. But I will not apologise.” 

McEnroe’s men began the afternoon trailing their European counterparts 8-4, but with each win worth three points on the final day, they acquired an unstoppable momentum once Auger-Aliassime had partnered Jack Sock to a 2-6, 6-3, 10-8 win over Murray and Matteo Berrettini in the opening match. 

Tiafoe’s victory was all the more impressive for the manner in which he turned things around after a blistering start by Tsitsipas. The Greek world No 6 initially picked up from where he left off on the opening day, when he blitzed Diego Schwartzman for the loss of just three games. But Tiafoe, roared on by his team-mates, was the more courageous player down the stretch, punishing the frequently questionable shot selection of Tsitsipas – who seemed determined to draw the American forward with short sliced backhands rather than driving through the ball – as he fought like his life depended on it.  

“There was a great team spirit, so we were battling from the beginning,” said McEnroe, who was dancing with joy by the end. “I think we felt that it is the big four, but obviously the circumstances are a little different than they could have been 10 years ago, five years ago.  We knew we had a shot at it, but it was an uphill battle.”

Circumstances are indeed different. Federer, his race finally run, was reduced to the role of cheerleader-cum-super coach, dispensing pearls of wisdom at the changeovers (“I know you like to play fast, but not now,” he implored Tsitsipas during the critical second-set tiebreak) while occasionally looking as though he wanted to tear out his immaculately coiffured hair. Nadal curtailed his involvement after his old rival’s emotional sendoff on the the opening night, returning to his home in Mallorca, where his wife is expecting their first child. Murray, who has been competing with a metal hip for the past three years, struggled to hit the high notes on a slow, gritty hard court that was never likely to bring out the best in his game.

That left Djokovic to shoulder the hopes of Team Europe, a task that looked well within his capabilities after the heroics of Saturday, when he returned to the match court after an absence of more than two months to demolish Tiafoe 6-1, 6-3 before partnering Matteo Berrettini to a 7-5, 6-2 over Alex de Minaur and Sock. Yet even the Serb has his limits, and having not played since beating Nick Kyrgios in the Wimbledon final, it was little wonder that he appeared hampered by a sore wrist against Auger-Aliassime, whose near-flawless performance would have presented a stern challenge at the best of times.  

The first half of 2022 may have belonged to the old guard, with Nadal winning the Australian and French Opens, and Djokovic claiming a seventh Wimbledon title, but the past month has been about the rise of a new generation of challengers. 

Carlos Alcaraz, 19, ushered in a fresh dawn at the US Open, becoming the first teenager to win a major title since Nadal in 2005 and the youngest world No 1 in history. Now Auger-Aliassime and Tiafoe – himself a semi-finalist in New York, where he pushed Alcaraz all the way in a five-set epic – have picked up the baton. 

“To do it here in Laver Cup, win for the first time, how bad Mac wanted it, how bad everybody else wanted it – seeing what Felix did, and Jack – I thought it was just time,” said Tiafoe. “It was time to get it done.”

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“You have to be realistic,” said Ann Jones, the former Wimbledon and French Open champion and a regular captain of the British team. “We haven’t done very well over the last few years.”

Nobody would wish the Laver Cup to go the same way, but Sunday’s anticlimactic finale at Boston’s TD Garden offered a salutary warning about the dangers of lopsided competition. With Team Europe leading 11-1 after the first two days’ play, Team World’s slender hopes of claiming a first victory at the nascent event hinged on winning all four of the scheduled matches. Instead, the whole thing was done and dusted in less than two hours, as Alexander Zverev and Andrey Rublev subdued Reilly Opelka and Denis Shapovalov 6-2, 6-7 (4-7), 10-3 to complete a 14-1 rout. 

Team Europe has now won each of the competition’s first four editions. A 15-9 victory at the inaugural event in Prague four years ago was followed by a 13-8 triumph in Chicago the year after, before Bjorn Borg’s men edged a 13-11 thriller in Geneva in 2019. The Laver Cup remains a fantastic spectacle, and the novelty of watching the sport’s star individuals cast aside their competitive differences and join forces in pursuit of a common goal is not about to wear off anytime soon. An event that can unite Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal as a doubles pair, as happened in 2017, or offer amusing moments like the one that saw Daniil Medvedev attempting to cast Matteo Berrettini in his own mould by advising the big-hitting Italian just to focus on making more balls, is unlikely to want for spectators in the short term. Equally, uncertainty is the lifeblood of sport and, if the Laver Cup continues in its present one-sided vein, there will inevitably come a time when entertaining vignettes are no longer enough to put bums on seats. Federer, the event’s godfather, understands this well, and it may explain why Andrey Rublev jokingly accused the Swiss of supporting Team World at one point during the weekend. 

With Federer and Nadal recovering from injury, and Novak Djokovic taking a well-earned rest after falling at the final hurdle in his bid for a calendar-year grand slam, this was meant to be the year when Team World finally stepped up. “This is our time,” promised Nick Kyrgios on the eve of the tournament. While that always smacked of optimism, given that Team Europe had six of the world’s top-10 players in their ranks, the unbalanced nature of the contest still came as something of a surprise. The result certainly gave the lie to any suggestion that the Laver Cup is nothing more than a glorified exhibition. What happened in Boston was more execution than exhibition.

There was a wry smile from John McEnroe, the Team World captain, when Borg pointed out in his post-victory address that there were “a lot of close matches, and it could have gone either way”. While there was a germ of truth in that assessment – six of the nine matches went to tiebreaks – Team World were well beaten in the end, as McEnroe conceded.  

“Obviously, if you get a couple of different results, we could have put more pressure on them, but we just came up short in [five] tiebreakers,” said McEnroe. “Win half those and it’s a totally different story. Even other matches, we had a chance to get in. We gave it our best, but they were too good.”

What then to do? An obvious option would be to introduce women into the mix. For years, the women’s game has featured a revolving carousel of geographically diverse major champions. Imagine a Team World side bolstered by the inclusion of Serena Williams, Ashleigh Barty and Naomi Osaka, or a Team Europe featuring the likes of Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek and Karolina Pliskova. It would showcase the game in a more inclusive light, further broaden the Laver Cup’s audience and appeal, and add a fresh dimension to the competition’s format, allowing women’s and mixed doubles into the picture. 

McEnroe has called for the tournament to be afforded greater prominence, arguing that it is a mistake to dilute its impact by allowing other events to run concurrently. “I don’t think there should be any tournaments going on if they want to try to get to the level of a Ryder Cup, say. It’s got to stand on its own,” said the former world No 1. “It’s not going to be like, ‘Well, other players need to be able to play and … get their points at the [tournament] in Kazakhstan or wherever they are right now.’ I just don’t agree with that. I think it’s a mistake by the ATP.”

What if the entire tennis world, ATP and WTA events alike, stood still for a Laver Cup bolstered by the world’s best women? At a stroke, the profile of the tournament would be further magnified and, crucially, the event would become more competitive.

Whatever happens next, there is no denying the Laver Cup’s singular attraction. With its distinctive black courts and association with Rod Laver, Federer, Borg and McEnroe, as well as young, rising champions like Zverev and Medvedev, it has quickly established its own distinct sense of history and tradition. It features a stellar cast that unites the game’s past, present and future. Players and public alike love it. It is, in short, unique. But then so was the Wightman Cup.

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