DAY SESSION (1 p.m.)<\/p>\n
Alexander Zverev (Europe) vs. Alex De Minaur (World)
The Team Europe brain trust of Yannick Noah and Tim Henman will look to the Laver Cup\u2019s all-time points leader in Alexander Zverev to keep their lead intact on Saturday. The 28-year-old German, No.3 in the PIF ATP Rankings, will face Team World\u2019s Alex de Minaur at Chase Center. He holds a commanding 8-2 edge in the career head-to-heads against the Australian, but De Minaur has been playing some of his best tennis of late. This summer, the 26-year-old saved three championship points against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in capturing his 10th career title in Washington, then followed up with quarterfinal finishes in Toronto and Flushing Meadows.<\/p>\n
Holger Rune (Europe) vs. Francisco Cerundolo (World)
Dane Holger Rune will be making his Laver Cup debut when he takes the court against Argentine Francisco Cerundolo. These two have met just once before, with Rune pulling out a memorable five-set thriller, 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(7), in the Round of 16 at Roland Garros in 2023. Cerundolo, No. 21 in the PIF ATP Rankings, is unbeaten in two Laver Cup appearances on the singles court. Rune says he\u2019s been taking some tips from his teammate Carlos Alcaraz, who with the US Open title climbed back to No. 1 after a two-year absence. \u201cFor sure,\u201d said Rune. \u201cI was watching him practicing. That\u2019s another privilege of playing this kind of event. You can kind of learn from each other. Carlos is an amazing guy. It\u2019s very cool to be on the same team and train with him. Not just him, but all the guys on the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
EVENING SESSION (7 p.m.)<\/p>\n
Carlos Alcaraz (Europe) vs. Taylor Fritz (World)
Buckle up for this primetime blockbuster between two of the sport\u2019s most dynamic performers \u2014 the recently rechristened world No.1 Carlos Alcaraz and No.5-ranked Taylor Fritz. The Californian Fritz will be looking for some revenge after Alcaraz clinched a 13-11 victory for Team Europe last year in Berlin at his expense, 6-2 7-5. The Spaniard also joined teammate Jakub Mensik for a doubles point on Friday night in San Francisco, taking down the all-Cali duo of Fritz and Alex Michelsen, 7-6(7), 6-4. Alcaraz owns a perfect 3-0 record against Fritz, including a 6-4, 5-7, 6-3, 7-6(6) decision earlier this summer in the Wimbledon semis. \u201cThis week, it\u2019s never tough to get that competitive energy,\u201d said Fritz, who was battling a cold in the wake of his quarterfinal run at the US Open. \u201cI\u2019m feeling refreshed, motivated. Prior to Davis Cup, I was really burned out. All that being said, I knew that once I got on court here, all that would go away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Holger Rune\/Casper Ruud (Europe) vs. Alex de Minaur\/Alex Michelsen (World)
The stakes will be raised when Alex de Minaur and Alex Michelsen return to the Chase Center court on Saturday night for a doubles showdown with the Scandinavian pairing of Holger Rune and Casper Ruud. The Norwegian Ruud, making his fifth consecutive tournament appearance, put Team Europe on the board on Friday in singles, when he downed Team World\u2019s Reilly Opelka, 6-4, 7-6(4).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DAY SESSION (1 p.m.) Alexander Zverev (Europe) vs. Alex De Minaur (World)The Team Europe brain trust of Yannick…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[18278,37974,5244,64,63,962,51612,39280,8399,85,3599],"class_list":{"0":"post-157976","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-alex-de-minaur","9":"tag-alex-michelsen","10":"tag-alexander-zverev","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-carlos-alcaraz","14":"tag-casper-ruud","15":"tag-francisco-cerundolo","16":"tag-holger-rune","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-taylor-fritz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}