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Laver Cup
Alcaraz downs Fritz to finish Europe’s Laver Cup comeback
Crew Europe captain Borg finishes reign with triumph
September 22, 2024
Gerald Matzka/Getty Pictures for Laver Cup
Carlos Alcaraz celebrates after clinching the Laver Cup for Crew Europe on Sunday in Berlin.
By Andy West
Carlos Alcaraz delivered a pair of beautiful Sunday performances in Berlin to assist Crew Europe full an exciting 13-11 comeback victory on the Laver Cup.
The No. 3 within the PIF ATP Rankings defeated Taylor Fritz 6-2, 7-5 in a winner-takes-all singles conflict to make sure Crew Europe lifted the groups occasion trophy for the primary time since 2021. Alcaraz, who earlier on Sunday partnered Casper Ruud to an important doubles victory towards Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe, had an excessive amount of firepower from the baseline for his High-10 rival Fritz.
Carlitos comes up clutch 💪
The 6-2 7-5 victory over Fritz secures the title for Crew Europe. 🏆@LaverCup | #LaverCup | @carlosalcaraz pic.twitter.com/MVpi4wSxPM
— ATP Tour (@atptour) September 22, 2024
Together with Ruud and Alexander Zverev, the latter of whom rallied previous Frances Tiafoe 6-7(5), 7-5, 10-5 to pressure the deciding match, Alcaraz ensured that Bjorn Borg ended his seven-year stint as Crew Europe captain along with his fifth Laver Cup victory. Borg additionally led his males to victory on the first 4 editions of the occasion.
“It’s nice. Clearly we got here right here with a objective, to win the Laver Cup,” stated Alcaraz in his on-court interview. “We’re very, very blissful about reaching our objective. We nearly misplaced, however Sascha got here with actually good tennis and gave me the prospect to win.”
The Spaniard broke Fritz’s serve twice in every set en path to a 90-minute triumph at Uber Area. After he despatched down an unreturnable serve on match level, Alcaraz’s teammates swept onto court docket to have fun with him and captain Borg.
“It’s at all times robust to play Crew World at Laver Cup,” stated Borg. “You’ve seen good tennis this week and I believed that we weren’t going to win it, however the guys performed nice tennis and we got here by. For me to spend time with these gamers in Crew Europe, it’s a whole lot of enjoyable. We’ve a great crew spirit and we gave every part. I’m very happy with my crew.”
Regardless of defeat, Crew World can look again on a valiant effort in Berlin the place, like Borg, John McEnroe was additionally serving as captain for the seventh and last time. Up towards a European crew that includes 5 of the High 10 gamers within the PIF ATP Rankings, it at one level stood simply three video games from victory when Tiafoe led Zverev by a set and a break of their singles encounter.
After Zverev turned that match round, nevertheless, Alcaraz got here out firing to enhance to 2-0 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head sequence with Fritz. The inspiration of his victory was his serve, and he completed the match having received 80 per cent (33/41) of factors behind his first supply, in keeping with Infosys ATP Stats.
Though he let slip a break lead within the second set as Fritz rallied from 2-4 to 4-4, Alcaraz earned his fourth break of the match within the eleventh recreation with some razor-sharp returning. From there, he made no mistake in serving out to safe a well-known win for Crew Europe.
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