Make a head
Scores Tied at Laver Cup After Fritz/Shelton Beat Alcaraz/Zverev in Doubles
Dimitrov beats Tabilo in singles match on Friday evening
September 20, 2024
Clive Brunskill/Getty Pictures for Laver Cup
Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton defeated Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev on Friday evening in Berlin.
By ATP workers
The battle for the 2024 Laver Cup seems thrilling heading into Day 2.
Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton moved Workforce World stage on factors (2-2) with Workforce Europe after defeating the host nation’s doubles staff of Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev 7-6(5), 6-4 in Berlin on Friday evening.
All tied up 🔥
🔴 Workforce World: 2
🔵 Workforce Europe: 2@Taylor_Fritz97/@BenShelton equalizer after a 7-6(5) 6-4 victory over Alcaraz/Zverev.@LaverCup | #LaverCup photo.twitter.com/XgtoSsulPo— ATP Tour (@atptour) September 20, 2024
Individuals Fritz and Shelton hit 20 winners, together with eight aces, en path to a 95-minute victory over PIF ATP No. 2 Zverev and No. 3 Alcaraz, the latter making his Laver Cup debut. They sealed their victory after taking an important break within the ninth recreation of the second set to revive parity for Workforce World within the annual staff occasion.
“We each served rather well underneath strain,” Fritz mentioned in his on-court interview. “Ben served extremely properly, so I did not need to hit any volleys. That was nice.”
Shelton added: “I used to be simply having enjoyable on the market, actually. It makes life fairly simple while you’re enjoying with a man who strikes like Taylor does now. Fairly gentle on his toes and we had numerous enjoyable. First time we performed collectively, and I feel the chemistry was fairly good.”
Grigor Dimitrov had earlier opened a 2-1 lead for Workforce Europe on opening day with an exciting 7-6(4), 7-6(2) victory over Workforce World’s Alejandro Tabilo. The Bulgarian got here again from a double-break deficit of 1-5 to take a straight-sets victory and enhance to 2-0 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head sequence with Tabilo.
Dimitrov, who was pressured to withdraw from his US Open quarterfinal towards Frances Tiafoe 16 days in the past as a result of harm, hit 11 aces and received 80 % of factors behind his first serve whereas overcoming some bodily points at Uber Area. With the two-hour, 15-minute victory, Dimitrov improved his report to 2-0 in Laver Cup singles matches after beating Tiafoe on his occasion debut in Chicago in 2018.
There are three singles matches and one doubles match left in Berlin on Saturday, with every win price two factors. Workforce World is hoping to win its third consecutive Laver Cup this 12 months, after triumphing in London in 2022 and Vancouver final 12 months.