American Taylor Fritz defeated world number one Carlos Alcaraz in straight sets as Team World rode a day of upsets to a 9-3 lead at the Laver Cup in San Francisco.
Fritz’s 6-3 6-2 win over the Spaniard capped off a perfect day of singles results for Team World, with Alex de Minaur and Francisco Cerundolo claiming earlier wins over Team Europe on Saturday.
Australia’s De Minaur kicked off the second day of the first-to-13 competition with a shock straight-sets win over world number three Alexander Zverev.
The eighth-ranked De Minaur raced out to a 5-0 lead before carrying that momentum to a 6-1 6-4 victory in just one hour and 38 minutes.
Team World then stretched their advantage to two points on the back of Cerundolo’s 6-3 7-6 (5) win over Denmark’s Holger Rune.
The Argentinian cruised through the first set, before Rune fought fire with fire in the second to force a tie-break, which Cerundolo ultimately claimed 7-5.
Fritz then capitalised on Team World’s momentum in the evening session, overpowering the US Open champion with 17 winners, including five aces.
Speaking on-court after the match, Fritz said: “I knew what I had to do.
“The question was if I was going to be able to do it. The three times I had played Carlos, he had broken me in the first game every time.
“Getting out of that first game was huge. I just made sure I didn’t second guess myself.”
Team World’s dominance was rounded out by the final match of the day, which saw De Minaur partner with Alex Michelsen to defeat Rune and Casper Ruud 6-3 6-4.
