He had lost his first singles match, but things are looking better in the doubles. Zverev is now set to play again for Team Europe quite early on Sunday.
US Open champion Alexander Zverev managed to secure some crucial points for Team Europe at the Laver Cup during the night session after all. Partnering Norway’s Casper Ruud, the Hamburg-born player won the doubles match against Alexander Bublik (Kazakhstan) and Brandon Nakashima (USA) 6-4, 7-6 (9-7) very late on Saturday evening in London. In the team competition between the Europeans and the rest of the tennis world, Zverev’s team now heads into Sunday’s decisive matches with a 7–5 lead. Earlier on Saturday, Zverev had lost his first singles match against Australia’s Alex De Minaur 6–2, 6–7 (5–7), 9–11.
However, Spanish star Carlos Alcaraz then went on to defeat Taylor Fritz (USA) 6–4, 4–6, 13–11, a victory that levelled the competition at 5–5 – after which Zverev and Ruud secured the lead for Europe.
At the O2 Arena, where Zverev won his first ATP Finals title in 2018, Sunday will kick off with a doubles match: Italian French Open finalist Flavio Cobolli, paired with Jakub Mensik (Czech Republic), will face De Minaur and Fritz (from 1.00 pm). Zverev will then play the first of up to three singles matches of the day against Learner Tien (USA).
The points system at the Laver Cup is designed to delay the outcome for as long as possible: the four matches on the opening day awarded one point to the winner of each, whilst on Saturday, two points were awarded for each match won. On Sunday, three points are now at stake in each match. The team that reaches 13 points first wins the Laver Cup – so if Europe’s doubles pair prevail at midday, Zverev can secure overall victory in his singles match.
Last year, Europe lost the tie 5–19 in San Francisco. Of the eight editions held since 2017, the Europeans have won five. Next year, the Laver Cup will take place at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California.
