Mosconi Cup: With a 9-2 advantage over USA in the Saturday singles, Europe needs just two more points to defeat them.
Team Europe increased its lead over Team USA on Friday night at Alexandra Palace by winning two of the three games. They now only need two more points to win the 2023 Mosconi Cup.
Jayson Shaw led the assault on Friday after they swept the first night 4-0 in London, increasing their lead to 7-1 on the second evening.
In the opening match of the evening, Shaw and David Alcaide defeated Skyler Woodward and Shane Wolford 5-2. Later, in a singles match, the Scot defeated Woodward once more, this time winning even more resoundingly 5-1.
In the last match of the evening, Woodward and Fedor Gorst defeated Shaw and Francisco Sanchez Ruiz 5-3, helping the USA earn their first point and second overall.
Europe now has a commanding seven-point lead going into Saturday’s action, as they move closer to winning the tournament for the fourth time in a row and finishing in 16th place worldwide.
What happened on night two
If the visitors were hoping for a huge comeback, they had to start the first tie of the evening off right, but Team Europe was swift to respond.
Following his victory over Alcaide in the first game of the evening, Shaw, who had won all three of his singles matches in Las Vegas the previous year, led 4-0 against Woodward in the second match of the evening. However, the American saved face by making the second golden break of the week in rack five, sparing him from the agony of losing consecutive singles matches.
Shaw, however, completed the task in style with his second break and run of the match to put Europe even farther ahead at 9-1, cheered on by the bulk of the nearly 2,200 spectators present.
In match 11, Woodward Gorst and Shaw combined to defeat Shaw and Sanchez Ruz, putting Team USA pretty much past the point of no return and giving them a great finish to the evening.
The Americans took leads of 2-0 and 3-1, which was the first time they had held a two-rack advantage this week, before the reigning champions drew even at 3-3.
However, in rack seven, Woodward produced his second brilliant break of the evening, and the US won the night’s final match, 5-3, to bolster morale.
