Carlos Alcaraz secured his first win against a top-10 opponent since the Australian Open final in a 6-3 4-6 (11-9) thriller against Taylor Fritz as Team Europe secured a narrow 7-5 lead heading into the final day of the Laver Cup.
Fritz’s only career victory over Alcaraz came during Team World’s win over Europe in last year’s Laver Cup, but Alcaraz saved two match points against the American and came out on top in a Saturday that featured six match-deciding tiebreaks in eight matches.
The Spaniard served an ace on Fritz’s first match point and then used a drop shot to save another, and Alcaraz finally won it on his third match point when Fritz got to his drop shot but couldn’t get it back.
“The drop shot is part of my game,” Alcaraz said. “So in those moments, in those really close and important moments, I tried to use it because it was a really good weapon for me in this match and obviously I’ve been practising the drops since I was a little kid.”
Fritz played a clean match with only nine unforced errors to Alcaraz’s 30. But Alcaraz led 42-20 in winners – often bringing the O2 Arena crowd to its feet, as Roger Federer and Andy Murray applauded from the front row.
Roger Federer, Thierry Henry, and Andy Murray were among the celebrity names in attendance
It was Alcaraz’s first singles match since he lost to Ben Shelton in a U.S. Open quarterfinal that ended at 3:33 a.m. He won a doubles match with Jakub Mensik on Friday.
Earlier, it was all Team World – which is captained by Andre Agassi – as Alex de Minaur had a 2-6, 7-6 (5), 11-9 comeback victory over Alexander Zverev and Learner Tien outlasted Flavio Cobolli 6-3, 2-6, 10-7.
In the final match of the day, Zverev partnered with Casper Ruud to beat Alexander Bublik and Brandon Nakashima 6-4 6-6 (9-7) in the crucial doubles match that secured Team Europe the overnight lead.
Zverev lost to De Minaur to leave Team Europe reeling at 3-5 down
Wins are worth three points on Sunday. The first team to reach 13 points wins.
Europe has won the Laver Cup five times while Team World took its third title in last year’s edition of the Ryder Cup-style event.
Stream tennis with no contract on NOW and the Sky Sports App, with the final day of the Laver Cup at The O2 in London live on Sky Sports on Sunday.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: skynews.com
