Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\nIt was the second straight year that de Minaur has defeated Zverev, who also triumphed at Roland Garros this year, and was his fourth singles victory in three Laver Cup appearances.<\/p>\n
After leading the Australian charge in last week\u2019s Davis Cup win against Poland in Brisbane, de Minaur put his body on the line for the Andre Agassi captained Team World – drawing blood from his knee after a diving volley during the match tiebreak.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you can notice, my blood is red as well,\u201d de Minaur said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a very tough match. A tough battle. I left it all out there and got fortunate in the end to get the job done and I\u2019m happy to give some points for Team World.\u201d<\/p>\n
Australia’s Alex de Minaur of Team World celebrates victory against Germany’s Alexander Zverev of Team Europe after their 2026 Laver Cup men’s singles tennis match, at the O2 Arena in London on September 26, 2026. (Photo by Henry Nicholls \/ AFP) \/ RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USESource: AFP<\/p>\n
De Minaur\u2019s task will get even tough on the final day as Team World look to come from behind to defend the title they won in San Francisco last year.<\/p>\n
He will face Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday after the Spaniard saved two match points in his win against American Taylor Fritz.<\/p>\n
The Australian is confident of pulling off an upset, however.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were in the same position last year and it worked out pretty well for us,\u201d de Minaur said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe know we can do some damage. We know we\u2019re the underdogs, but we also know that we can step out on this court and light it up.\u201d <\/p>\n
Team World had overturned a 3-1 overnight deficit in the first two matches of the day as all three singles matches went to a deciding tie-break.<\/p>\n
Learner Tien beat Flavio Cobolli before Zverev lost out to Alex de Minaur.<\/p>\n
LONDON, ENGLAND – SEPTEMBER 26: Alexander Zverev of Team Europe interacts with Alex de Minaur of Team World after the Men’s Singles match on day two of Laver Cup 2026 at The O2 on September 26, 2026 in London, England. (Photo by Clive Brunskill\/Getty Images for Laver Cup)Source: Getty ImagesLONDON, ENGLAND – SEPTEMBER 26: Alex de Minaur of Team World celebrates with Andre Agassi, Captain of Team World, after his victory over Alexander Zverev of Team Europe in the Men’s Singles match on day two of Laver Cup 2026 at The O2 on September 26, 2026 in London, England. (Photo by Clive Brunskill\/Getty Images for Laver Cup)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Alcaraz was beaten by Fritz in last year\u2019s Laver Cup, but the Australian Open champion exacted his revenge, although he was pushed all the way before edging a classic 6-3, 4-6, 13-11.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo great and tough losses today and obviously I was thinking a little bit about last year, (when) we lost every match on Saturday,\u201d Alcaraz said.<\/p>\n
\u201cComing into the match, I was trying not to let it happen again. So I was kind of nervous at the beginning, I\u2019m not going to lie. But really happy that I took the win at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zverev teamed up with Casper Ruud to give Europe the advantage heading into Sunday with a 6-4, 7-6 (9\/7) doubles victory over Alexander Bublik and Brandon Nakashima in the final match of the day.<\/p>\n
Each match on Sunday is worth three points with the first side to 13 the winners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex de Minaur stunned US Open champion Alexander Zverev, but Europe hold a 7-5 lead over Team World…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":907311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-907310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907310","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=907310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/907311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=907310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=907310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=907310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}