Sawt Falasteen - Shelton to face Fils in Laver Cup opener

The pair will be followed by two more Laver Cup newcomers as Team Europe's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain takes on Team World's Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina.

Shelton, the 20-year-old former US collegiate star who turned pro last year, became the youngest US Open semi-finalist since Michael Chang in 1992 when he roared into the last four at Flushing Meadows -- where he fell to eventual champion Novak Djokovic.

It was another impressive 2023 Grand Slam performance from Shelton, who also reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Open.

"Excited to be kicking things off tomorrow and looing forward for the chance to set the tone for the team," Shelton, who has climbed to 19th in the world rankings on the strength of his sensational US Open run said as he looked forward to leading off Team World's defence of the title they won last year in London.

Team Europe had won all four prior editions of the event that began in 2017, but will be relying on a young squad to regain the crown after their highest-ranked players -- Denmark's fourth-ranked Holger Rune and fifth-ranked Stefanos Tsitsipas -- withdrew from captain Bjorn Borg's side because of injuries.

That opened the door for the 44th-ranked Fils, who captured his first ATP title in Lyon in May -- beating his new Team Europe teammate Cerundolo in the final.

Friday's night session will see Canadian favorite Felix Auger-Aliassime take on Team Europe's Gael Monfils of France.

Auger-Aliassime won two doubles matches last year and beat Djokovic on the final day to help Team World rally for the victory.

He was looking forward to a chance to repeat in front of home fans.

"We're here to compete, we want to win," Auger-Aliassime said. "To have the home crowd and people with us to do that I think is going to be great.

"I had a great experience winning last year, but it was 'away,' so it would be nice to do it at home."

First-day action concludes with Fils partnering with sixth-ranked Andrey Rublev against an all-American Team World duo of Frances Tiafoe and Tommy Paul in doubles.

Matches are worth one point on Friday, two on Saturday and three on Sunday, with the first team to 13 points claiming the cup.

C.Hamad--SF-PST