Team World close to retaining Laver Cup a third straight time

BERLIN (AP) — Team World just needs two more match wins to claim the Laver Cup a third straight time.

Team World won three of four matches from Team Europe on Saturday to take an 8-4 points lead into the third and final day in Berlin.

After Friday's matches were split evenly, Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz beat top-five opponents and Ben Shelton and Alejandro Tabilo crushed Europe's Casper Ruud and Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-1, 6-2.

Team Europe's only win came from Carlos Alcaraz, the French Open and Wimbledon champion. He beat Shelton 6-4, 6-4 with one break in each set. Alcaraz saved all five break points he faced. Shelton conceded his first sets in his fifth career Laver Cup match.

Tiafoe, who reached the U.S. Open semifinals, beat No. 5 Daniil Medvedev 3-6, 6-4 (10-5) for the first time in six attempts.

“Midway in the second (set) and in the tiebreak, I felt like I was Roger Federer, honestly,” Tiafoe joked while smiling at Federer, who was in the stands.

No. 7-ranked Taylor Fritz, the U.S. Open finalist, upset No. 2 Alexander Zverev 6-4, 7-5 for his third consecutive win over the German. Fritz hit 27 winners to Zverev's 11.

The day ended with Shelton's and Alejandro Tabilo's doubles rout.

The Laver Cup is formatted like golf's Ryder Cup. The first team to 13 points wins. There are four matches on Sunday, each worth three points.

AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

Team World's Frances Tiafoe returns to Team Europe's Daniil Medvedev on the second day of the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the Uber arena in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Team Europe's Daniil Medvedev returns to team World's Frances Tiafoe on the second day of the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the Uber arena in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Team World's Frances Tiafoe, right, shares a light moment with Team Europe's Daniil Medvedev on the second day of the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the Uber arena in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Team World's Frances Tiafoe reacts during a match against Team Europe's Daniil Medvedev on the second day of the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the Uber arena in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Team World's Frances Tiafoe, right, shares a light moment with Team Europe's Daniil Medvedev on the second day of the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the Uber arena in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Team World's Frances Tiafoe celebrates after he beat =med- on the second day of the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the Uber arena in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A former Polish justice minister who faces prosecution in his homeland over alleged abuse of power said Monday that he has been granted asylum in Hungary.

Zbigniew Ziobro was a key figure in the government led by the nationalist conservative Law and Justice party that ran Poland between 2015 and 2023. That administration established political control over key judicial institutions by stacking higher courts with friendly judges and punishing its critics with disciplinary action or assignments to far-away locations.

Current Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government came to power more than two years ago with ambitions to roll back the changes, but efforts to undo them have been blocked by two successive presidents aligned with the national right.

In October, prosecutors requested the lifting of Ziobro's parliamentary immunity to press charges against him. They allege among other things that Ziobro misused a fund for victims of violence, including for the purchase of Israeli Pegasus surveillance software.

Tusk’s party says Law and Justice used Pegasus to spy illegally on political opponents while in power. Ziobro says he acted lawfully.

Hungary, led by nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, has hosted several politicians close to Law and Justice while Polish authorities were seeking them.

In a lengthy post on X Monday, Ziobro wrote that he had “decided to accept the asylum granted to me by the government of Hungary due to the political persecution in Poland.”

“I have decided to remain abroad until genuine guarantees of the rule of law are restored in Poland,” he said. “I believe that instead of acquiescing to being silenced and subjected to a torrent of lies — which I would have no opportunity to refute — I can do more by fighting the mounting lawlessness in Poland.”

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in Budapest on Monday that Hungarian authorities have granted asylum to “several” individuals who would face political persecution in Poland, according to his ministry. He declined to specify their names.

In an English-language post on X, Tusk wrote that “the former Minister of Justice(!), Mr. Ziobro, who was the mastermind of the political corruption system, has asked the government of Victor Orbán for political asylum.”

“A logical choice,” he added.

FILE - The leader of the Polish junior coalition partners Zbigniew Ziobro, speaks to reporters alongside in Warsaw, Poland, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2020. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski, file)