SEPT 25 - 27, 2026 | LONDON
They might not have a Grand Slam champion on the team, but Team World has one in the captain’s chair – and Andre Agassi’s latest selection delivered when his team needed him at London’s O2 today.
Brandon Nakashima marked his Laver Cup debut with a hard-fought 6-1, 3-6, 10-7 victory over Jakub Mensik on Friday, leveling the score at 1-1 after Francisco Cerundolo was edged out by Casper Ruud in the opening match.
Called into Agassi’s team late in the piece, Nakashima arrived in London in strong form after an excellent North American swing. The World No.16 also had a recent win over Mensik, beating the Czech 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-4 in Washington this August.
But Mensik, ranked No.15, was hardly short on confidence. The 21-year-old had already made his mark at Laver Cup, winning two of his three matches for Team Europe in San Francisco last year.
With Team Europe holding the early advantage, Mensik was also buoyed by Ruud’s comeback in the opening match. But Nakashima came out firing, breaking in the second game of the first set and racing to a 5-0 lead in just 16 minutes. His clean ball-striking and confident net play gave Mensik little room to settle, and the American closed out the first set 6-1.
Mensik responded immediately. He broke in the second game of the second set and began finding the range that had taken him to the semifinals at Roland Garros this year. His passing shots repeatedly found the lines as he moved Nakashima around the court, leveling the match at 6-3.
That meant a 10-point match tiebreaker – also known as a Laver Breaker – would decide it.
The tiebreaker produced the intensity expected from a packed London crowd, with neither player able to establish a clear advantage. Mensik moved ahead 6-4 before Nakashima fought back and regained the mini-break at 8-7.
A second mini-break put Nakashima 9-7 ahead and gave him two match points. When Mensik sent his backhand long on the next point, Nakashima had completed the comeback.
“It felt amazing out there,” Nakashima said. “First of all, playing in front of the London crowd was amazing, almost a full stadium, and then, you know, being able to go out there and put a point on the board for the team and for the guys, you know, is an unbelievable experience for me.
“I came out of the gate pretty solid, got off to an early break. They [the Team World bench] were kind of just telling me to keep hitting through my shots, keep kind of doing the same patterns as I was doing.
“Having their advice all the time has really been great.”
Vice-captain Patrick Rafter, sitting next to Nakashima at his post-match media conference, admitted the team had felt deflated after Francisco Cerundolo’s narrow loss in the first match.
“Andre came and said, ‘We’re going to have these roller coasters throughout the whole next three days.’ Then, watching Nak go out there, I just said, ‘Mate, just try and lock in the first few games’. He did it absolutely perfectly.”
The victory gives Team World the recovery it needed heading into the final two matches of the day: Alexander Bublik versus Rafael Jodar in the first night session, followed by Bublik and Taylor Fritz against Carlos Alcaraz and Mensik in doubles.
Read Also: Ruud provides early Team Europe lead in Cerundolo rematch
