Four-time Grand Slam champion Carlos Alcaraz overcame Taylor Fritz 6-2, 7-5 as Team Europe rallied to beat Team World 13-11 and win the Laver Cup on Sunday.
Alcaraz broke the US Open runner-up Fritz in the 11th game and then closed out victory on serve, sparking celebrations as the Europe team rejoiced with captain Bjorn Borg in Berlin.
Team World was favorite to win the Laver Cup for a third straight time after leading 8-4 on points heading into the last of the three days.
Photo: Reuters
Europe began the comeback on Sunday when Alcaraz and Casper Ruud won the doubles 6-2, 7-6 (6) against US pair Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe.
However, Shelton then downed Australian Open finalist Daniil Medvedev 6-7 (6), 7-5, 10-7 to move the World team into pole position.
Tiafoe, who reached the US Open semi-finals, could have sealed it for them, but he lost to French Open finalist Alexander Zverev 6-7 (5), 7-5, 10-5, setting up the decider between Alcaraz and Fritz.
Photo: AP
The Laver Cup is formatted like golf’s Ryder Cup with the first team to 13 points winning the contest. Each of the four matches on Sunday was worth three points.
Europe’s only win in Saturday’s four matches came from Alcaraz, who won the French Open and Wimbledon this year.
Champagne corks often pop and loud, boisterous cheers are usually heard around Constitution Dock when the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race line honors winner finishes in the Tasmanian state capital. There were no such celebrations this year when the defending champions on board LawConnect won the race in the early hours of yesterday morning, as it came about 24 hours after two sailors died on separate boats in sail boom accidents two hours apart on a storm-ravaged first night of the race. LawConnect, a 100-foot super maxi skippered by Australian tech millionaire Christian Beck, sailed up the River Derwent at just after 2:30am.
Elena Rybakina’s Kazakhstan yesterday dumped defending champions Germany out of the United Cup with world No. 2 Alexander Zverev sidelined by an arm injury barely a week away from the Australian Open. The upset in Perth sent the Kazakhs into the semi-finals of the 18-nation tournament. In Sydney, women’s world No. 2 Iga Swiatek led Poland into the last eight by winning a rematch of her 2023 French Open final against Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic. Britain also progressed to the quarter-finals with Katie Boulter’s dominant 6-2, 6-1 victory over Australia’s Olivia Gadecki enough to guarantee they won their group. The US and
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Chess great Magnus Carlsen on Friday quit the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships in New York after governing body FIDE barred the Norwegian from participating in a round at the tournament for wearing jeans. FIDE said in a statement that its dress code regulations were designed to “ensure professionalism and fairness for all participants.” It issued Carlsen a US$200 fine and gave him an opportunity to change into the correct attire, which the world No. 1 rejected, it said. Carlsen said he had a lunch meeting before the round and had to change quickly. “I put on a shirt, jacket and honestly like
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