The Laver Cup is tied after the first day. How are the favourites doing?

The seventh edition of the Laver Cup started on Friday in Berlin. The unique competition of men’s tennis teams, whose tradition began in 2017 in Prague, this time started evenly between Europe and the World. Francisco Cerúndolo, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Grigor Dimitrov and, in doubles, Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton were victorious. After the opening day, the overall score is 2:2.

• Cerúndolo sent the World Team into the lead
• Europe turns the score around with Tsitsipas and Dimitrov
• Fritz and Shelton win the doubles to level the match at 2:2

The first four editions of the competition, named after legendary Australian player Rod Laver and founded by Roger Federer, were dominated by the European team of non-playing captain Björn Borg. However, the triumph of the previous two years is defended by the team led by his counterpart John McEnroe.

The world selection was also celebrating after the opening match on Friday in Berlin’s Uber Arena. In fact, Argentina’s Francisco Cerúndola fared better than world number nine Casper Ruud of Norway in the opening singles.

31. the ATP-ranked tennis player only needed to take one serve from the favourite in the first set. It happened in the seventh game, which was the key to the rest of the set and the final score 6: 4. The same result ended the second set, in the beginning of which Cerúndolo scored another break. After the next one, he did not hold his own serve at 5: 2, but he did not let the lead go.

With a total score of 0:1, the Europeans sent Stefanos Tsitsipas from Greece, where his opponent Thanasi Kokkinakis is from, to singles. The world number 12 did not allow the Australian from the 78th position in the rankings much in the first set and won clearly 6:1.

Tsitsipas took another significant step towards winning and equalizing the Laver Cup score at the beginning of the next game, when he took a break point for the third time in the match. Kokkinakis was unable to convert and the favourite won 6:4.

The most dramatic and longest match of the day was the evening singles match between Grigor Dimitrov and Alejandro Tabila. It was decided by two tiebreaks, which took different paths. The Bulgarian, who closes the top 10 of the ATP rankings, won the shortened game in the first set, which came after neither player reached a break point, by 7:4.

However, he didn’t enter the second set well, finding himself on the brink of defeat at 1:5 quite early on. But a reversal followed as the Chilean, currently ranked 22nd in the world, also avoided two lost serves and even three missed set points. Dimitrov completed the turnaround in the tiebreak, which he won 7: 2, and after two hours and 17 minutes, he defeated Tabila twice 7: 6. At the same time, he sent Europe into the lead for the first time this year.

Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz and Germany’s Alexander Zverev were looking to increase that lead in the final star-studded doubles match. They were opposed by the American duo of Taylor Fritz, Ben Shelton. And in this case, too, there was one tiebreak climax on the special dark hard court.

After Alcaraz and then Fritz failed to hold their serves, the shortened game went better for the US duo. They won it 7:5 thanks to the third set point they capitalized on. Shelton was the only one who remained 100% on his serve throughout the match. The ninth game brought a decisive break point against the then serving Zverev.

After that, the representatives of the rest of the world took care of the ending and with the victory 7:6, 6:4 they were able to level the match at 2:2 in the prestigious confrontation with the European team. On Saturday, when the tennis programme in the German capital starts again at 1 p.m., two points will be on the line in each match, and on Sunday, as usual, three. The first team to reach 13 points will win.

Daniil Mevedev has not yet entered the fray from Borg’s team, and Frances Tiafoe from McEnroe’s. It is the Russian and the American who will face each other at the start of the second day. Alcaraz and Shelton will clash next, followed by Zverev and Fritz in the evening. Ruud and Tsitsipas against Shelton and Tabil should provide the doubles point. Live coverage of Laver Cup 2024 will be broadcast by Eurosport.

Source: Laver Cup, ATP, Eurosport