Carlos Alcaraz and his Laver Cup team-mates are set to receive huge prize money cheques for bringing the trophy back to Team Europe.
The Spaniard got the job done on his debut at the tournaments, beating Taylor Fritz in the last match on the final day to deliver the final blow to their World rivals.
Team Europe will now pocket at least £1.1million ($1.5m) combined while Fritz and the rest of Team World will also leave Berlin with some extra cash.
As with previous years, the total prize money at the Laver Cup was reportedly set at £1.7m ($2.25m) to be shared between the 12 main players representing the two teams. Every member of the winning squad takes home £188k ($250k).
Alcaraz, Alexander Zverev, Daniil Medvedev, Casper Ruud, Grigor Dimitrov and Stefanos Tsitsipas were the six main team members representing Europe. Flavio Cobolli and Jan-Lennard Struff were alternates over the weekend.
But Fritz and the rest of Team World won’t go home empty-handed. Money is also set aside for the losing players. It means Fritz, Frances Tiafoe, Ben Shelton, Thanasi Kokkinakis and Alejandro Tabilo will bank £94k ($125k) each.
But they’d still rather have the trophy. Team World were touching distance from completing a hattrick of Laver Cup victories. Going into the third match on Sunday – Tiafoe vs Zverev – World needed one win to clinch victory while Europe needed two.
Tiafoe led by a set and a break before the German stormed back to beat him, thriving off of the home support. Alcaraz then brought it home for Europe. Reflecting on his tough loss to Zverev, the American later admitted: “Yeah, that wasn’t easy.
“Obviously you guys know how much I love this event. You know, I gave everything I have, especially in this event. I really thought I was in winning positions. Thought I was the better player today. Just kind of, it didn’t go my way.
“At the end there, I thought Zverev raised his level. He deserved to win at the end. Battled hard. It’s not easy to lose like that when you’re up a set and a break and kind of one-sided.”
Team World started the day with an eight points to four lead. But Europe ended things 13-11, with 13 required to win. “I think the last two matches with Sascha and Carlitos did was unbelievable,” captain Bjorn Borg said.
“They both have a lot of pressure. But they handled the pressure really well, and they played good tennis. But it’s a tough situation where they were in today with those two matches. But they did it. We’re happy, yes.”
