TEAM World surged ahead on day two of the 2024 Laver Cup with a couple of singles upsets to take an 8-4 lead over Team Europe heading into the final day of the event. Despite Team Europe boasting some of the ATP Tour’s biggest names – five of their six players are Top 10 compared to World’s one – Europe must win at least three of the four matches on day three to claim the title.

Entering the tournament, World had won the past two events, albeit with understrength Team Europe’s including the unforgettable farewell tour of Roger Federer a couple of years back. However in 2024 it was meant to be different given the clear quality gap between the sides.

However on day two, the American resistance took it up to the Europeans at Uber Arena in Berlin. Early in the day Carlos Alcaraz put Europe ahead 4-2 with a 6-4 6-4 triumph over Ben Shelton who was scheduled to play doubles later on that evening.

Though not serving an ace compared to Shelton’s four, Alcaraz was so efficient on serve, winning 78 and 62 per cent of his first and second serve points off a 78 per cent clip. He saved all five break points he faced, and generated 11 against his opponent, albeit only able to take one per set in order to get the win.

Shelton’s compatriot Taylor Fritz squared the ledger once more with an impressive 6-4 7-5 victory over world number three, Alexander Zverev. Fritz has become a nightmare for Zverev at Grand Slams this year with the American winnin in five and four sets at Wimbledon and the US Open in 2024.

He now moves to a 6-5 head-to-head with the German, getting it done via eight aces and winning a ridiculous 33 of 38 off his first serve. By comparison, the world’s best serve in Zverev only won 60 per cent of his first serve points despite running at a 75 per cent clip, with Fritz doing well to nullify his biggest weapon.

The biggest upset of the day was Frances Tiafoe defeating Daniil Medvedev to hand his team the lead. The American has lost five consecutive matches to the Russian, and in fact has not beaten Medvedev since 2015, but in a come-from-behind victory, Tiafore won 3-6 6-4 10-5 in the third set super tiebreak.

While the doubles for players who are predominantly singles players is always a bit of fun, Shelton and Alejandro Tabilo wasted no time showing they could possibly be a good combination in the future. The duo won 6-1 6-2 over Casper Ruud and Stefanos Tsitsipas – the latter who plays more doubles than the rest – in just 69 minutes.

They only dropped six points off their first serve and broke four times from 12 chances while saving both the break point opportunities against them. Team World was able to punish Team Europe off their second serve with a 72 per cent return success rate.

The win meant of the four matches on day three, Team Europe must win three of them in order to stage a comeback, with each contest worth three points. The doubles is slated first up with Alcaraz and Ruud set to take on Shelton and Tiafoe, before the action launches into singles.

Medvedev faces a busy Shelton, before Zverev and Tiafoe do battle, wrapping up with Alcaraz and Fritz which would be a live match in the case of Europe winning two out of the three earlier contests.