World Tennis League: Andrey Rublev edges past Nick Kyrgios to seal narrow win for Falcons over Kites

Ahead of a pivotal day at the World Tennis League which sees the final group matches take place and the top two reach the final, Falcons took an important step edging past Kites on Friday afternoon narrowly with Andrey Rublev leading them to victory.

After not playing for 18 months, Nick Kyrgios pulled double duty. He played men's singles against Rublev albeit despite only being a point behind, it was somewhat of an uphill struggle as he needed to beat Rublev by a margin in order to hand the tie to Kites.

As was seen by the 24-21 end score overall. Kyrgios did the best he could in the previous game as the Australian alongside Paolini threw it back into the balance with a 7-5 win over Caroline Garcia and Denis Shapovalov.

But Elena Rybakina's earlier wins proved vital as she teamed with Caroline Garcia to face off against Halep and Paolini. They claimed a 7-6 win. This featured a narrow tie-break winning 7-5. She then followed that up with a 6-4 win over a returning Simona Halep in a welcome tie for the former World No.1 who continues her road towards returning to her best.

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But this was then an uphill struggle for Kites who had to rely on Kyrgios realistically who has not played since June 2023 but he put up a solid effort as he aims to ramp up his match practice.

Tomorrow sees the final matches and currently Hawks and Kites are in pole position. The former anchored by Aryna Sabalenka won earlier today. While Kites remain narrowly behind, Eagles led by Iga Swiatek are well adrift and will need a herculean effort to make it to the final so it is likely a three way fight tomorrow with Falcons now narrowly ahead with this win after two games played.