Carlos Alcaraz enjoyed a dream Laver Cup debut as he clinched the victory for Team Europe.
Alcaraz and his team-mates trailed their World rivals by four points to eight coming into the final day of the tournament. But the Spaniard beat Taylor Fritz in a decisive, winner-take-all showdown.
It means John McEnroe has been denied his wish to pull off a hattrick of Team World victories in his last year as the captain.
Both McEnroe and Team Europe’s leader Bjorn Borg are leaving their roles. Team World will now be headed up by Andre Agassi while Yannick Noah will replace Borg. So it’s no surprise both men were keen to go out on a high.
Ahead of the tournament, the American showed how seriously he was taking his final Laver Cup as he banged his hands on the table and told his players: “If they lose — don’t lose for me on my last one, okay? That’s all I’m saying.”
But the trophy quickly slipped away from Team World on the third and final day of action. Alcaraz and Casper Ruud started things off by beating Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton in the doubles.
Shelton had no rest, immediately returning to beat Daniil Medvedev in the singles. And Team World looked locked on to win the Laver Cup for a third successive year when Tiafoe led Alexander Zverev by a set and a break.
Things quickly started to turn as Zverev thrived in front of his home crowd and stormed back, meaning it went down to the fourth and final match of the day. Alcaraz wasn’t messing about.
The 21-year-old had some fun on the court, faking slices and smashes to catch Fritz out. He raced into a 5-1 lead while the American struggled, taking paracetamol from the doctor during a changeover.
Alcaraz looked relaxed as he took the opening set 6-2 in half an hour. Meanwhile, Fritz told his team-mates that he needed to put more pressure on the Spaniard if he wanted to see Alcaraz suffer a lapse in concentration.
Finally, his plan worked. After getting broken from 40-0 up and bowing his first three break point chances, Fritz looked to be on his way to a one-sided defeat. Then he stormed back to win three games in a row, going 5-4 up.
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