Team World storms into Sunday with 8-4 lead

Team World is just two wins away from a third successive Laver Cup triumph, after the men in red took three of the four matches played in Berlin’s Uber Arena on Saturday, to go into the final day leading 8-4.

A day which looked slightly slanted towards the hosts ended emphatically for the visitors, with a humbling doubles defeat for the men in blue. Team Europe was expected to take the two afternoon singles, the Zverev-Fritz evening singles seemed a 50:50, while Team World was strongly fancied to win the doubles. The second and fourth of the day’s matches went according to expectations, with the big shock coming in the Medvedev-Tiafoe match.

An 8-4 lead going into day three of the Laver Cup is by no means unassailable. Two years ago, Team Europe took that lead into the final day in London, only to see it wiped out in the first two singles and Team World seal the win when Frances Tiafoe saved four match points in beating Stefanos Tsitsipas. With three points available for each of the final day’s matches, Team Europe can regain the trophy with three wins out of four, but on the basis of Saturday’s form, the momentum is against the Europeans.

There were two crucial periods in Saturday’s action when fortunes turned Team World’s way. The first came in the match tiebreak of the first singles. Daniil Medvedev had taken the first set against Frances Tiafoe, leaving the American with just one set in five-and-a-half matches against the former US Open champion. So when Tiafoe took the second set to level the match, he could sense his first win.

At 4-4 in the tiebreak, the fifth-ranked Medvedev was still the slight favourite, but Tiafoe, ranked 16, thrives in the team atmosphere, and he summoned his best tennis, running away with six of the last seven points to turn the rankings on their head.

The second came in ten tense minutes in the second set of the Alexander Zverev versus Taylor Fritz match. A first set of punishing rallies went to Fritz, but Zverev secured an early break in the second. At 4-2, he looked in command, and had two points for a double-break to lead 5-2. But another four brutal rallies went to Fritz, allowing him to hold serve, and in the next game he levelled at 4-4 by breaking an increasingly tired-looking Zverev, who admitted later that he’d been a little under the weather this past week.

Fritz was striking the ball very cleanly and moving so well that Zverev’s best couldn’t penetrate the American’s defences. And while Zverev held for 5-5, it was no surprise when Fritz broke again to seal victory.

Team World’s dominance in the doubles was emphatic. Led by the effervescent Ben Shelton, who earlier in the day had lost a tight match against Carlos Alcaraz, the Spaniard winning his debut Laver Cup singles 6-4 6-4, the visitors should have taken the first set 6-0, Team Europe saving two set points before opening their account at 0-5.

Shelton and Alejandro Tabilo, an all-lefthanded pairing, were more cohesive from the start. Shelton came to the net after most of his serves, while Casper Ruud and Stefanos Tsitsipas played largely from the baseline. Ruud in particular seemed ill at ease, while Tsitsipas, a doubles champion in Antwerp last year, was clearly Europe’s on-court leader. Yet the two simply didn’t play well enough, too many volley errors cost them vital points, and Shelton and Tabilo pummelled the ball at the European pair. Tsitsipas even suffered the indignity of hitting an air shot, the butt of his racquet catching his knee while the strings missed the ball.

With the score at 6-1 3-1 after 35 minutes, the crowd had very little to latch on to, but then Ruud found his range from the back of the court, and the match briefly became competitive. The sixth game was pivotal as the Europeans tried to claw back the break they had conceded at the start of the set. They had two break points to level at 3-3, Ruud missing a reflex backhand volley on the first, Tsitsipas mistiming a poach on the second which left his alley undefended. Once Tabilo had held for 4-2, the men in red never looked back, Shelton and Tabilo winning 6-1 6-2 in 69 minutes.

Shelton was particularly motivated in the doubles. “I wanted to come out to redeem myself tonight,” he said. “Carlitos [Alcaraz] was just too good in the singles, and Alejandro helped me.”

Sunday’s action begins an hour earlier than Friday and Saturday at 12.00 local time, with the doubles opening play, followed by up to three singles.