Laver Cup 2024 Day 2 result round-up: On Day 2 of the 2024 Laver Cup, three single matches and one doubles were played and the results have put one team in a commanding position
Last Updated: 08.07 AM, Sep 22, 2024
Tied at 2 points each, with 2 victories a piece, Team Europe and Team World took the court knowing fully well what was at stake. Day 2 matches carry 2 points each and 8 of them were up for grabs. Drawing first blood on Day 2 was Team World, when Frances Tiafoe defeated Daniil Medvedev, after conceding the first set. Tiafoe took the second set, forcing a tie-breaker to decide the winner. The final score – 3-6 6-4 10-5. This was Tiafoe’s first victory over Medvedev, with the latter having all 5 of their earlier matches.
The second match of the day had French Open and Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz on court for Team Europe, playing Team World’s Ben Shelton, in only their second match ever. The previous one, at the 2023 ATP Masters in Canada had gone Alcaraz’ way. And in Berlin, with his team on the backfoot, Alcaraz was not going to let the match go any way but his. In 1 hour 43 minutes, he defeated Shelton in straight sets, 6-4 6-4. With this victory, he put Team Europe back in the game, levelling the scores at 4 all.
In the only singles match of the evening session, it was Alexander Zverev against Taylor Fritz, a duo that had played each other 10 times, with the wins also evenly split. Fritz, though, had gone into the match with a slight advantage of having won both of their last two encounters, including at Wimbledon and the US Open. And he extended this advantage, trumping Zverev yet again, 6-4 7-5 to put Team World ahead with 6 points against 4.
And then, in the doubles match, when Ben Shelton and Alejandro Tabilo took on Stefanos Tsitsipas and Casper Ruud, they gave Team World a further advantage, winning 6-1 6-2. At the end of Day 2, Team World were at 8 points against 4, needing only 5 more to take home the trophy. Team World is two-time champion and is defending the title.
The Laver Cup’s point system declares the first team to reach 13 points winner. In the event of the teams ending up tied at 11 points each, after 12 matches, a doubles match will be played on Day 3. The points on Day 3 will be crucial for Team Europe, if it wants to have a fighting chance in the tournament. Each match carries 3 points and they will need a clean sweep to achieve that.
Team Europe includes Alexander Zverev, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Casper Ruud, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Grigor Dimitrov, while Team World has Frances Tiafoe, Alejandro Tabilo, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Francisco Cerundolo, Ben Shelton and Taylor Fritz.
The Laver Cup, an invitational tournament instituted by Roger Federer in honour of Rod Laver, is being held at the Uber Platz in Berlin, Germany. The broadcast for the three-day event, that features 12 tennis players split in two teams, is Sony Network in India, with live stream available on SonyLIV.