Team Europe Edges Out Team World In 7th Edition Of Laver Cup

Jacob Pletka

Team Europe celebrating after Carlos Alcaraz’s win over Taylor Fritz. 

What is the Laver Cup?

The Laver Cup is a tournament commemorating Rod Laver, a famous Australian Tennis player who has won eight Grand Slams throughout his career. The tournament is a team event in which European tennis players are faced against the rest of the world in a first to 13-point contest. Each proceeding day, the matches are worth more points. The competition lasts three days (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) where every match is worth 1 point on Friday, 2 points on Saturday, and 3 points on Sunday. 

Tournament Build-Up:

Coming into the event, Team Europe was led by captain Bjorn Borg and vice-captain Thomas Enqvist. The team comprised of Carlos Alcaraz, Grigor Dimitrov, Daniil Medvedev, Casper Ruud, Stefanos Tsitsipas, and Alexander Zverev (alternates: Flavio Cobolli and Jan-Lennard Struff).

Captain John McEnroe and vice-captain Patrick McEnroe led Team World. The team comprised of Taylor Fritz, Thanasi Kokkinaks, Ben Shelton, Frances Tiafoe, Franciso Cerundolo, and Alejandro Tabilo.

Team Europe led Team World 4-2 prior to the 7th edition of the Laver Cup. However, Team World won the last two clashes, with their most recent one being a blowout, a 13-1 victory in which all of Sunday’s matches were not played. 

Day 1: 

Team World’s Argentinian Star, Cerundolo, started off strong with a convincing, 6-4 6-4, over the former world number 2, Ruud. Shortly after, Team Europe’s Tsitsipas dismantled Australia’s Kokkinakis 6-1 6-4, evening the score at 1-1. The last singles match was super close in both sets, but the Bulgarian Dimitrov managed to pull through in two tiebreak sets 7-6(7-4) 7-6(7-2) against Alejandro Tabilo. To end the day off, the Americans Shelton and Fritz had a straight-set victory over Alcaraz and Zverev.

Day 2:

Tiafoe rose to the occasion and took Team World to a 4-2 lead by beating Medvedev in a grueling three-set match, 3-6 6-4 10-5. Alcaraz immediately followed that up with a decisive 6-4 6-4 win over Shelton to level the score. Leading into the night session, Fritz was able to capitalize on Zverev’s weaker serve and beat him 6-4 7-5. Heading into doubles, Team World knew that winning this match would take them into a 4-point lead. They effectively capitalized, winning 6-2, 6-1. 

Day 3:

Down 8-4, Team Europe needed to come up with something magical to pull back and win. Sunday started, and Team World was still cruising. American Ben Shelton secured the 7-point lead over Team Europe by barely beating Medvedev 6-7(6-8) 7-5 10-7. With such an advantage, Europe’s comeback seemed undoable. However, Europe won the following singles match and doubles match in a forceful fashion (Zverev beat Tiafoe 6-7(5-7) 7-5 10-5 and Alcaraz & Ruud beat Tiafoe & Shelton 6-2 7-6(8-6)). With a score of 11-10 for Team World, the deciding match was between World #6 Taylor Fritz and World #2 and four-time Grand Slam champion Carlos Alcaraz. The match lasted a mere 90 minutes, with Team Europe displaying why they deserved to win. With a clean 6-2 7-5 victory, Alcaraz’s victory concluded the 7th edition of the Laver Cup.