News

Team Europe wins the Laver Cup after an outstanding weekend

Federer & C. produced a fantastic performance in Chicago

24 September 2018

Last year’s Laver Cup was great. Everyone was “in it,” and the Federer-Nadal “bromance” was a huge hit. There were some question marks about if the competition would have been as exciting in year 2. Well… that was another big success.

Team Europe won the competition (again) after a lot of drama. In fact, on one side Federer & C. looked utterly superior in singles with Roger, Novak Djokovic, and Sascha Zverev, but on the other side, the Team World was vastly superior in doubles with an outstanding Jack Sock.

The format of the competition has an “incremental point system,” and that means that the matches of the 1^st day bring only 1 point per win, 2 points each on day 2 and 3 on day 3. That means that the rule of the game is to lead ahead of day 3 because that means that you need to win only 2 matches out of 4 to get the trophy.

The Last Day

Europe was leading 7-5 after day 2, and they went down 7-8 after Federer and Zverev lost to Sock and Isner in the 1st match of day 3 (4-6 7-6 (2) [11-9])

Later, the Swiss Maestro produced one of his masterpieces to beat Isner after saving 3 match points and give a 10-8 lead to his team that needed only another win. (the final result was 6-7 (5) 7-6 (6) [10-7])

Sascha Zverev was outstanding in the 3^rd match of the day against Kevin Anderson to get the final point after winning 6-7(5) 7-6(6) [10-7].

After Zverev’s win, Team Europe conquered an unassailable 13-8 lead, and there was no need for Djokovic and Kyrgios to play the last match.

There is a big debate if the Laver Cup is classifiable as a competition or an exhibition. This looks more like a proper competition, and it’s great fun!