Australia’s Nick Kyrgios and Americans Reilly Opelka and John Isner have been included by captain John McEnroe in his Team World line-up for this year’s Laver Cup to be held in Boston from September 24-26.

The trio will join Canadians Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime and Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman who had earlier confirmed their participation.

Kyrgios, Opelka and Isner are renowned as big servers, with the latter duo standing at 6ft 11 (2.11m) and 6ft 10 (2.08m) respectively.

“Reilly had a great run last week in Toronto to reach the finals and I’ve been really impressed with his recent form,” McEnroe told the Laver Cup’s official website.

“He’s a young guy and new to the Laver Cup, but with John and Nick having been part of the Laver Cup since the start, we have a ton of experience on our side and that’s going to be critical.”

Opelka is now the top-ranked American at No 23 in the world, having rose nine spots to a career-high ranking after reaching his first ATP Masters 1000 final in Toronto last week.

“I’m very excited to be representing Team World at the Laver Cup in Boston,” Opelka said. “Playing in the US in an arena like TD Garden, with John McEnroe as our captain is going to be a surreal experience – I can’t wait.”

The Team Europe line-up, with Bjorn Borg as captain, consists of World No 2 Daniil Medvedev, 2021 French Open finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas (world No 3), Olympic Gold medallist Alexander Zverev (world No 5), Andrey Rublev (world No 7), 2021 Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini (world No 8) and Casper Ruud (world No 11).

The Europeans hoisted the trophy at the inaugural event in Prague in 2017, Chicago in 2018 and Geneva in 2019.

But Team World will fancy their chances this year, especially with the fact that Team Europe will be without Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Dominic Thiem.

The Laver Cup, named after legendary Australian player Rod Laver, was not held last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Picture: Nick Kyrgios – ATP Tour/Twitter

Advertisement