Laver Cup Day One Round-Up: Carlos Alcaraz strikes back as Team Europe take the lead

Day One is in the books at the Laver Cup with the usual drama we come to expect from the Team Europe v Team World affair with an opening win for Joao Fonseca sparing the blushes of the latter as Carlos Alcaraz struck back to give his team a lead going into Day Two.

Fonseca stormed back from 4-2 down in the opening set against Flavio Cobolli in the second match of the tournament to win seven out of the last eight and take their singles match. He completed it 6-4, 6-3 and breathed a new life into the Team World side albeit that was slightly dented as Alcaraz and Mensik managed to claw back that momentum.

They faced off against Taylor Fritz and Alex Michelsen in the last match of the night and claimed a 7-6(7), 6-4 win against the American pairing in what was Alcaraz's first competitive action since winning the US Open and reclaiming World No.1.

But the night before that belonged to Fonseca who was roared on by his team and gave Team World something to think about going into Day Two instead of staring down the barrel of a potential 4-0 deficit if they lose the opener on Saturday. At this rate they could feasibly win the next game and be back towards being on level terms.

"I think my team helped me a lot, to stay positive during the match," said Fonseca. "I was a little bit more nervous than usual. It's normal. And then after I started talking a little bit more with Andre and the team... I was playing good in the beginning, but I was still a little bit nervous and making a lot of mistakes, but after I got through so I'm very happy with that."

Albeit Alcaraz and Mensik cut the party firmly short. They did not face a break point in a dominant doubles outing. They did have to save a set point at 5/6 in the first set tie-break but they managed to keep it tight and not lose any silly points. The only break of the match came in the final game when Fritz almost gave up the ghost by handing the duo a break and the win in the end.

Match Statistics Alcaraz C / Mensik J vs. Fritz T / Michelsen A

Ruud and Mensik set the tone

This win is also intriguing as since the start of the Laver Cup in 2017, no team has come back to win from 3-1 down. This lead was set up though by Casper Ruud and Jakub Mensik.

They set the tone powering Team Europe into a 2-0 lead. Ruud took down big serving American Reilly Opelka in the day session. He completed a dominant serving display 6-4, 7-6(4). Debuting a shorter racquet head, Ruud used it to perfection winning 88% of his first serve point s(45/51). He erased both break point chances he faced and Opelka won just 16% of his return points compared to 28% for Ruud.