Team Europe wins the Laver Cup and Carlos Alcaraz celebrates with the trophy. picture alliance

Carlos Alcaraz breaks Laver Cup record in Team Europe's win

By Sai Mohan | Last updated Sep 23, 2024 5:09 AM ET

World No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz delivered a pair of stunning performances Sunday as Team Europe completed a late comeback to defeat Team World 13-11 at the Laver Cup.

Entering the match, the Spaniard was under immense pressure after his teammates, Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev, suffered losses to Team World's Ben Shelton and Taylor Fritz, respectively, earlier in the weekend. When Shelton put away Medvedev, Team World was a win away from capturing its third consecutive Laver Cup trophy.

However, Alcaraz put Team Europe on his back to defeat Fritz 6-2, 7-5 in a winner-takes-all singles match to give his continent its first Laver Cup since 2021. The win came after Alcaraz and his Norwegian teammate, Casper Ruud, secured a doubles win over Shelton and Frances Tiafoe earlier in the day. Zverev also played a key role by beating Tiafoe in a nail-biting singles match to keep Team Europe afloat.

By scoring eight of Team Europe's 13 points, Alcaraz set a new record at the Laver Cup for most points by an individual player, surpassing the previous record set by Roger Federer (seven in 2017).

8 - Carlos Alcaraz has managed eight points for Team Europe during the 2024 edition of the Laver Cup, it is the most points a player has earned for his team in a single edition of the Laver Cup. Champ. #LaverCup | @LaverCup @atptour @ATPMediaInfo pic.twitter.com/rj90aAZpFp
— OptaAce (@OptaAce) September 22, 2024

Alcaraz's victory also meant that tennis legend Bjorn Borg ended his seven-year stint as Team Europe's captain on a victorious note. Borg had won the first four editions of the event before John McEnroe's Team World turned the tide in 2022 and 2023 to win back-to-back tournaments.

In his post-match interview, Alcaraz said he wanted to win the trophy for captain Borg.

"We did it for you," Alcaraz said while hugging Borg, via lavercup.com. "It's great, obviously we came here with a goal, all of us, that is to win the Laver Cup. We almost lost, you know, but Sascha [Alexander Zverev] came with really good tennis [against Tiafoe], and give me the chance to win the Laver Cup so I think we are really, really happy with everything."

The 2024 Laver Cup also marked the first instance of neither Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal or Federer representing Team Europe. While Nadal and Djokovic pulled out to prioritize other events, Federer retired from competitive tennis after the 2022 Laver Cup in London.

As such, Alcaraz's dominating performance at this year's event can be seen as the official dawn of a new era for European tennis.

Sai Mohan

A veteran sportswriter based in Portugal, Sai covers the NBA for Yardbarker and a few local news outlets. He had the honor of covering sporting events across four different continents as a newspaper reporter. Some of his all-time favorite athletes include Mike Tyson, Larry Bird, Luís Figo, Ayrton Senna and Steffi Graf.

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