Spanish finish: the fate of the Laver Cup decided in the last match
Despite the serious difference in the rankings of the European and World teams, the Laver Cup 2024 turned out to be the toughest in the history of this exhibition tournament. It should be recalled that five top-10 players (Alcaraz, Zverev, Medvedev, Ruud and Dimitrov), plus Stefanos Tsitsipas, who recently dropped out of the top-10, played for the Old World in Berlin. The rest of the world had a much more modest team (also due to the withdrawals of Tommy Paul and Alex de Minaur). In the end, however, Taylor Fritz and company were one step away from victory, but lost two decisive matches.
Comparison with Djokovic
Alas, the tournament did not work out for the only Russian representative. Daniil allowed the world team to score five points (the team earns one point for winning a match on the first day, two points on the second day and three points on the third day). On Saturday, September 21, Medvedev lost to Francis Tiafoe, and on the final day to Ben Shelton. It should be noted that both of these defeats happened on a super tie-break to 10 points (replaces the third set at the Laver Cup), so it is definitely not worth sprinkling your head in ashes (although our tennis player is now on a three-set losing streak).
In addition, these matches are not rated, although Medvedev himself took the exhibition tournament in Germany as seriously as possible. For example, in his 4-6 tiebreak of the first set against Shelton, he dropped his racket and then won four points in a row and the game. However, he was unable to build on that success. The American won the second set and the tie-break to 10 points.
- I wanted to rehabilitate myself after the morning [doubles] match (together with Tiafoe lost to Alcaraz and Ruud. - "Izvestia"), - said Shelton. - Of course, I still lost my singles match to Carlos on Saturday and I didn't want to end the tournament without any wins. I played quite a few matches this weekend, very exhausted.
After Ben's success, the European team needed to win the two remaining matches to become the winners of the Laver Cup: Zverev against Tiafoe and Alcaraz against Fritz. It was not an easy task, given the fine form the Americans had gained in recent months.
However, the mission was achievable. Zverev made a crazy comeback in the second set against Tiafoe and pulled out a super tie-break victory (although Alexander was complaining of a cold on Saturday). This is the sixth consecutive victory for the German over the American, the only time Francis defeated Alexander was in 2017 at the Cincinnati Masters. Thus, the fate of the championship was decided in the final match.
Fritz approached it with perfect statistics. Victory over Zverev in singles and doubles (Alexander played together just with Alcaraz).
- Fritz's current form is amazing," Zverev emphasized after his third consecutive singles loss to Taylor. - Only Djokovic played so powerfully in my memory a few years ago. I've never seen Taylor like this. He is quite capable of putting on a very strong finish to the season.
However, the American failed to beat Alcaraz. Carlos took two sets (6:2, 7:5) and helped the European team to a 13-11 victory.
Complaints about the calendar
Now the total score in the confrontation became 5:2 in favor of the European team. Interestingly, the world team won the Laver Cup in 2022 and 2023, when the European team did not have Zverev. So Sasha is the guarantor of success for the Europeans. This fact will have to be taken into account by the new European coach Yannick Noah (winner of Roland Garros in 1983), who will replace Bjorn Borg from next year. The World Team from 2025 will be led by the great Andre Agassi.
Although top tennis players may ignore the Laver Cup even more massively in the future. That was the thought this weekend from the main headliners of this year's tournament.
- There is no other sport that is played as much as this," Alexander Zverev said. - It can't go on like this. The players' health is being jeopardized. It's unthinkable: we start the season on December 29 and finish in the second week of November. It's all about money, only ATP cares about them. We have no authority to make decisions. Yes, I can listen to you, declare a boycott, and then what? We just lose money. Other players will take our places and the calendar won't change.
- To be honest, there are a lot of great players on the tour and of course everyone feels differently," Alcaraz said. - A lot of people want to play even more. A lot of people think we have a good calendar. And a lot of people say it's very difficult and that we have too many tournaments in a year. I fall into the latter category. I think we have too many compulsory tournaments now, and in the future there will be even more. The calendar is very overloaded. A lot of injuries are happening now - because of the balls, the schedule. There are a lot of reasons. So probably at some point a lot of tops will start missing tournaments because of that, because they need to think about their health, about their favorite people. They have family and other things in their life besides tennis. So it's hard to imagine that I will play exhibition tournaments as well.
It should be noted that in parallel to the Laver Cup there is a tournament in Chengdu. There Russian tennis player Alibek Kachmazov reached the semifinals, where on Monday, September 23, he will play with the first seeded Lorenzo Musetti from Italy.
