Another year and another fantastic Laver Cup was gifted to the tennis fans. Zverev won the decisive point for Team Europe in the final 3rd set tiebreak after a rather amazing Sunday.
Team Europe too good for Team World?
Team Europe was believed to make a meal of Team World at the beginning of the competition. In fact, the likes of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Dominic Thiem, Sascha Zverev, Fabio Fognini and a “luxury alternate” such as Roberto Bautista Agut seemed to be too much for their opponents. However, John McEnroe did an amazing job to motivate his team. The American legend didn’t have much. In fact, in his line-up, he had Jack Sock, John Isner and Milos Raonic that were all out of form. Nick Kyrgios was injured and Denis Shapovalov out of confidence.
Team World leading 11-6
Nevertheless, Team World managed to stay close to their opponent to trail only 5-7 after the second day. Then the unthinkable happened in day 3 when each win counts 3 points. Rafa Nadal had to pull out from doubles and singles because of an inflammation to his hand. Eventually, Federer and Tsitsipas lost the doubles against Isner and Sock ( 5-7 6-4 10-8) before Thiem was surprised by a great Taylor Fritz (7-5 6-7 10-5). At that point, Team World was leading 11-7 and they needed to win only 1 of the following 2 matches.
Federer kicked in to win in straight sets against a below-par John Isner 6-3 7-6 (3). Therefore, 2 players that had a rather disappointing season (Zverev and Raonic) had to play for the decisive point. Eventually, everything became a war of attrition and it was Zverev to keep his cool to win 6-4 3-6 10-4.
Here all the highlights.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B2umImCAhfs/
Alexander Zverev’s ranking and performance in 2019
Ranked no.6, Zverev played his last match on the 2nd of September when he lost to Diego Sebastian Schwartzman 3-6 6-2 6-4 6-3 in the 4th round in U.S. Open.
This year Alexander has a 31-18 win-loss record. Zverev has won 1 title in Geneva. Alexander was the finalist in Acapulco.
