{"id":160501,"date":"2025-09-22T02:27:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T02:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/160501\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T02:27:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T02:27:06","slug":"carlos-alcaraz-keeps-team-europe-alive-with-dominant-laver-cup-win-atp-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/160501\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlos Alcaraz keeps Team Europe alive with dominant Laver Cup win | ATP Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Laver Cup
\n Alcaraz keeps Team Europe alive with dominant Laver Cup win<\/p>\n

Team World’s lead cut to 12-9 in San Francisco<\/p>\n

September 22, 2025<\/p>\n

Eakin Howard\/Getty Images for Laver Cup<\/p>\n

Carlos Alcaraz won the first five game in his must-win Laver Cup matchup against Francisco Cerundolo.
\n By Arthur Kapetanakis<\/p>\n

Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> has done his job for Team Europe on Sunday at Laver Cup<\/a>. After beginning the day with a doubles victory, the Spanish superstar delivered once again in a must-win matchup against Francisco Cerundolo<\/a> to keep his team alive in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

Emerging with a blue nasal strip, the No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings breathed new life into Team Europe by dominating from the first ball with power and creativity. In a 6-2, 6-1 triumph, Alcaraz won the first five games of both sets in a stress-free outing that belied the stakes. Cerundolo suffered his first Laver Cup<\/a> loss, falling to 3-1 in the competition.<\/p>\n

The victory cut Team World’s lead to 12-9\u00a0in the first-to-13 event, with each Sunday match worth three points. Taylor Fritz<\/a>, who beat Alcaraz on Saturday night, still has a chance to clinch the Laver Cup<\/a> for the home team with a victory against Alexander Zverev<\/a>. If Zverev wins to level the score at 12-12,\u00a0an “overtime” doubles set will decide the champion.<\/p>\n

Alex de Minaur<\/a> earlier moved Team World within one match win of Laver Cup<\/a> glory by beating Jakub Mensik<\/a> 6-3, 6-4. The Aussie escaped 0\/40 in the match’s final game to give his team a 12-6 lead.<\/p>\n

“I’m so used to fighting off break points on my serve. I do that for a living,” said a jovial De Minaur, who saved all five break points against him. “I’m not a bot like some of the players in Team World.”<\/p>\n

De Minaur has earned seven points for Team World this weekend, beating Zverev and teaming with Alex Michelsen<\/a> for a doubles win on Saturday, when wins counted for two points.<\/p>\n

“It’s a great team event. I do my best every time I step on the court and I’m glad I was able to get a couple of wins for Team World this weekend,” he said.<\/p>\n

Alcaraz and Casper Ruud<\/a> changed the complexion of the event with a much-needed doubles win for Team Europe to open Sunday’s action. After Team World swept Saturday’s play without dropping a set to lead 9-3, Alcaraz and Ruud cut the deficit to 9-6.<\/p>\n

The Europeans earned a 7-6(4), 6-1 win against Michelsen and Reilly Opelka<\/a>, battling back from 1\/4 in the first-set tie-break to take control. Alcaraz and Ruud did not face a break point in the match, according to Infosys ATP Stats, but they needed 11 break points before finally breaking their opponents early in set two.<\/p>\n

“We stayed really strong, really solid. We did what we had to do and I think that it worked pretty well,” Alcaraz said of their patience.<\/p>\n

Two points defined the match. At 1\/4 in the tie-break, Team World thought they came out on top in a thrilling exchange only to find that Michelsen’s reflex volley sailed just beyond the baseline. That started a run of six straight points to seal the set, followed by a run of five consecutive games in set two.<\/p>\n

Midway through the second set, Alcaraz hit the shot of the match: a preposterous drop volley that left Michelsen stranded despite the American standing well inside the service line.<\/p>\n

“Sometimes a lot of ideas come to my mind,” Alcaraz said of his shotmaking abilities. “I just enjoy making the choices. I think in that position it was the only shot or the best shot I could choose in that moment.”<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Laver Cup Alcaraz keeps Team Europe alive with dominant Laver Cup win Team World’s lead cut to 12-9…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-160501","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}