San Francisco (United States) (AFP) – Taylor Fritz held off Alexander Zverev 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) to seal Team World’s triumph in the Laver Cup on Sunday as two wins for Carlos Alcaraz on the final day proved too little for Team Europe. Fritz fired a backhand volley winner on his first match point to give Team World a 15-9 victory over Europe in the global tennis event, sparking jubilant celebrations from his teammates and World captain Andre Agassi at Chase Center — home of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors.
“The energy from the team, it just feels the moments of winning feel so much better, the moments of losing feel so much worse because you’re doing it for all these guys,” Fritz said. “It just fires me up so much,” added the fifth-ranked American, who had beaten Alcaraz on Saturday when Team World swept all four matches to seize a 9-3 lead.
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Fritz had raced through the opening set against a weary-looking Zverev. The German stepped it up in the second set, but he was down a break and trailing 4-3 before he finally mustered his first break points of the night. He converted his third to level the set at 4-4 to the delight of his Europe teammates and captain Yannick Noah. A quick hold from Zverev left Fritz serving to stay in the set. He held to love and they battled to the tiebreaker, where Fritz took a 3-0 lead only for Zverev to win three straight points before Fritz won four of the final five.
Alcaraz, fresh off his sixth Grand Slam title at the US Open, had kept Europe’s title defense alive with a blistering 6-2, 6-1 victory over Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo. Alcaraz and Casper Ruud had sliced Europe’s deficit with a 7-6 (7/4), 6-1 doubles victory over Reilly Opelka and Alex Michelsen to open Sunday’s action.
But Australian world number eight Alex De Minaur then beat Czech Jakub Mensik 6-3, 6-4 to push Team World’s lead to 12-6, with 13 points needed to claim the Cup and each match on Sunday worth three points. De Minaur, a late replacement on Team World for Frances Tiafoe, had nabbed two wins on Saturday — beating Zverev in singles and coming through again in doubles. Team World regained the title they surrendered to Europe last year in Berlin. Europe have won five of eight editions of the event co-created by Swiss great Roger Federer, which will be held in London next year.
© 2024 AFP
