Taylor Fritz held off Alexander Zverev 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) to seal Team World’s triumph in the Laver Cup on Sunday as two wins for Carlos Alcaraz on the final day proved too little for Team Europe.
Fritz fired a backhand volley winner on his first match point to give Team World a 15-9 victory over Europe in the global tennis event, sparking jubilant celebrations from his teammates and World captain Andre Agassi at Chase Center.
“The energy from the team, it just feels the moments of winning feel so much better, the moments of losing feel so much worse because you’re doing it for all these guys,” Fritz said.
“It just fires me up so much,” added the fifth-ranked American, who had beaten Alcaraz on Saturday when Team World swept all four matches to seize a 9-3 lead.
Alcaraz had kept Europe’s title defence alive with a blistering 6-2, 6-1 victory over Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo.
Alcaraz and Casper Ruud had sliced Europe’s deficit with a 7-6 (7/4), 6-1 doubles victory over Reilly Opelka and Alex Michelsen to open Sunday’s action.
But Australian World No. 8 Alex De Minaur then beat Czech Jakub Mensik 6-3, 6-4 to push Team World’s lead to 12-6, with 13 points needed to claim the Cup and each match on Sunday worth three points.
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