A heavy underdog in the Laver Cup, Team World salvaged one point on Friday with a doubles victory over Team Europe in the nightcap.
John Isner and Denis Shapovalov teamed up to defeat Matteo Berrettini and Alexander Zverev 4-6, 7-6(2), 10-2. It was an essential victory for the World, which had lost each of the three singles matches.
“Honestly I think the credits go bigtime to John,” Shapovalov praised. “The guy played incredibly today. He carried me; he really helped lift my game up. This guy talks about being a serve bot, but today I think he was more of a return bot as well.”
“We didn’t want to go down 4-0,” Isner assured. “We have a real shot at this tomorrow. We’ve been in this situation before.
“All these guys on Europe, they’re top 10 for a reason. They play the big points very well. We were just a little unlucky in singles; I think a lot of us know that. Denis and I had to bring the energy, had to try to get this score a little bit closer and we’ll take our cuts tomorrow.”
Saturday’s singles matches are Nick Kyrgios vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas, Isner vs. Alexander Zverev, and Shapovalov vs. Daniil Medvedev. Doubles pits Kyrgios and Isner against Tsitsipas and Rublev.
It is an entirely different singles lineup for both squads. On Friday, Casper Ruud opened with a straight-set defeat of Reilly Opelka. Matteo Berrettini capped off the afternoon session by beating Felix Auger-Aliassime in a super-tiebreaker. The visitors swept the singles slate when Andrey Rublev outlasted Diego Schwartzman in another super-‘breaker.
Matches on Day 2 are worth two points after being good for only one on Friday. Sunday’s are worth three points.
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