The Norwegian set the tone with a 6-4, 7-6(4) win over big-serving American Reilly Opelka<\/a>, delivering a dominant serving performance of his own, while Mensik fought off Alex Michelsen<\/a> 6-1, 6-7(3), 10-8.<\/p>\n Ruud, who revealed that he is debuting a slightly smaller racquet head, was ultra consistent behind his delivery. He won 88 per cent of his first-serve points (45\/51) and erased both break points he faced, according to Infosys ATP Stats. Opelka won just 16 per cent of his return points, compared to Ruud\u2019s 28 per cent.<\/p>\n \u201cThe [goal was] to be in the zone, make a lot of balls, make him play and get Europe off to a good start,\u201d said Ruud in his on-court interview. \u201cReally happy with the match. I was in the same position last year and lost the opening match, so it\u2019s good to get some revenge and begin strong for Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n Mensik survived a late scare against Team World\u2019s Michelsen. Serving for the match at 6-1, 5-3, Mensik lost serve and needed to complete his victory in a Match Tie-break.<\/p>\n Both players raised their level as the match wore on, but the Czech quickly jumped to a 4\/0 lead in the Match Tie-break to deflate the American\u2019s hopes of levelling with Team Europe. Michelsen displayed his competitive spirit to pull within one at 7\/8. Mensik converted his first match point with a booming serve on the Ad side to Michelsen’s backhand, which missed long.<\/p>\n “Great match,” Mensik said. “We’ve known each other since juniors, so we knew a lot about ourselves on the court. With this format, with the Match Tie-break in the third, it’s always tough for your nerves, but I’m happy that I stayed focused until the end and I kept fighting. I’m glad that I helped my team take a point.”<\/p>\n Friday\u2019s evening session will feature Flavio Cobolli<\/a> versus Joao Fonseca<\/a>. Then, Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> and Mensik partner against Taylor Fritz<\/a> and Michelsen.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Laver Cup Ruud shines, Mensik survives as Team Europe takes 2-0 lead at Laver Cup Czech serves for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-168967","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"It](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1758340327_263_it-all-adds-up-banner.jpg\"\/)
<\/a><\/p>\n