@SportsHorn
Prague, Czech Republic
Two of the games young stars were in the spotlight again in the first night match on Day 1 at the Laver Cup. In a rematch of the Rogers Cup semi final in Montreal in August, it was Zverev who again was victorious over 18-year old phenom Denis Shapovalov 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-5).
In yet another entertaining affair, the third of the day, the two players were unable to break each other in the opening set despite having their chances. Zverev with two break chances in the third game while Shapovalov had a break chance of his own to win the opening set but it wasn’t to be.
After tiebreakers were needed to decide each set in the previous two matches, it was appropriate it was more of the same in this match. However, Shapovalov fell apart double faulting the first point and then making a series of errors giving the German the set.
In the second set, Shapovalov fended off another break point in the eighth game to keep the match even. In his next service game Zverev got to his serve again. He had three set points against the Canadian but was unable to convert. He had another chance later in the game but the youngest member of the World Team fended that one off too. On one of those break chances he stumbled along the baseline and fell but got up shortly thereafter.
They went to yet another full tiebreak, the sixth of the day and again Shapovalov wasn’t up to the task. Several more mistakes and a double fault on match point gave Team Europe another point to increase there lead in the Laver Cup to 3-0.
Along with the match on the court, there were several hilites from the players off it as well.
Roger Federer was shown on the big screen in the first set after missing the start of the match. The crowd politely applauded. Zverev then took it upon himself to throw his arms in the air and asked the crowd to cheer louder. An embarrassed Federer just laughed and smiled.
During the first set the World Team also had fun with the crowd. With Nick Kyrgios leading the way, all members of the team got the crowd to start doing the “wave” throughout the building. They got it to go around the arena twice before play resumed.
With Shapovalov down 6-5 he won a mildly impressive point which caused Frances Tiafoe of the World Team to break out some dance moves. He did it again after the following point when Shapovalov held his serve.
The best of the antics was in the second set tiebreak. Cheering on their teammate, the World Team decided to do pushups on every point Shapovalov won. He won the second point of the breaker, two pushups from everyone. Third point won, three pushups from the team. The most they had to do was five, as Zverev won the tiebreak 7-4.
The final match of the night, the lone doubles affair, the World Team finally got on the board. Nick Kyrgios and partner Jack Sock defeated Rafael Nadal and hometown native Tomas Berdych 6-3, 6-7, 10-7. To no ones surprise it was another competitive match but it did also have some fun. Kyrgios had a successful then unsuccessful tweener attempt, Sock hit a half lob while falling to the ground and then they combined for a basketball style chest bump shown multiple times on TV.
A highly entertaining day of tennis on Day 1 at the Laver Cup ends with Team Europe holding a 3-1 lead over Team World. It will be interesting to see how they top the opening day over the weekend.
