The inaugural Laver Cup was held at the O2 arena in Prague, in September last year, with Team Europe, led by Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, defeating Team World 15-9. The second edition of the Laver Cup took place in Chicago last weekend, and Team Europe ruled again with a 13-8 victory.
The event is played over 3 days: each day 4 matches are played, 3 singles and a doubles. Each win is worth one point on Friday, 2 on Saturday and 3 on Sunday. Matches are played in the best of 3 sets, with a 10-point match tiebreaker in the third. The winning team must reach 13 points. In case of a tie, a doubles match is played as a regular set to determine the winner.
On day 1, Team Europe won the 3 singles, while Federer and Djokovic lost in doubles against the pair of Kevin Anderson and Jack Sock.
On day 2, Team Europe led by 7 to 1 after Zverev’s win over Isner and Federer tennis lesson to Kyrgios. But Team World rallied back to 5-7 after Kevin Anderson’s surprising win over Novak Djokovic and Kyrgios and Sock doubles victory over Dimitrov and Goffin.
Team World led for the first time of the weekend after another doubles victory in day 3’s opening match! But Federer put Team Europe ahead by saving three match points to defeated Isner. And finally it all came down to Zverev, who dropped the first set before leveling at one set all and winning a thrilling match tiebreaker against Anderson. 13-8, Team Europe retains the title!
Next year’s competition will take place in Geneva, Switzerland from 20-22 September.
| Roger Federer / Alexander Zverev | John Isner / Jack Sock | 6–4 6–7 [9–11] | 7–8 |
| Roger Federer | John Isner | 6–7 7–6 [10–7] | 10–8 |
| Alexander Zverev | Kevin Anderson | 6–7 7-5 [10-7] | 13–8 |
Photo credit: Christian Cresante
Title number 97 for Roger Federer who dispatched Grigor Dimitrov 6-2 6-2 in the final. Federer continues his unbeaten start to the 2018 season and regains the number one ranking for the first time in more than five years.
Following his win at the ATP finals last November, Dimitrov reached the semifinals in Brisbane (beaten by Kyrgios), and the quarterfinals at the Australian Open where he fell to Kyle Edmund. He hasn’t dropped a set all week en route to the final but couldn’t do much to prevent Federer from winning his third Rotterdam title.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was the defending champion, but withdrew before the tournament began with a left hamstring injury.
In the doubles draw, Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert went on to claim the title with a 2-6 6-2 10-7 win over recent Australian Open champions Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic. This is Mahut’s third title in Rotterdam, after his victories with Llodra in 2014, and Pospisil in 2016.
Photo credit: ABN AMRO
20th seed Carreno Busta defeats Dimitrov 7-5 6-3 6-4 and reaches the last 16 at a Grand Slam for the first time. He’ll next face Milos Raonic was leading 6-1 1-0 when his opponent Guillermo Garcia-Lopez retired.
Check out a few pictures from Grigor’s practice on Saturday:
Read more:
– 2017 clay court season: who won what
– Carreno Busta wins Estoril Open
Stan Wawrinka had some good results on hard courts earlier this year with a semifinal at the Australian Open and a final at Indian Wells, but his results on clay are disappointing so far to say the least: he lost to Pablo Cuevas in the third round in Monte Carlo and to Benoit Paire in the second round of the Madrid Open.
Do you think he can regain his form and win the French Open?
Check out a few pictures from Wawrinka’s practice sessions in Madrid:
Six years after reaching the Rotterdam final, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga finally lifts the trophy, rallying back from a set down to defeat David Goffin 4-6 6-4 6-1. This is Tsonga’s 13th ATP title, his second ATP 500 after Tokyo in 2009.
With this final, Goffin reaches the top 10 for the first time of his career, becoming the first Belgian male player to do so.
In the semifinals, Tsonga defeated 2014 Rotterdam champion Tomas Berdych to record his 400th ATP victory.
In a repeat of last week’s Sofia Open final, Goffin took revenge on Grigor Dimitrov in a thrilling 3-set match to clinch his first victory over the in-form Bulgarian, and qualify for the semifinals where he beat doubles specialist Pierre-Hugues Herbert.
Number one seed Marin Cilic lost to eventual winner Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarterfinals 6-7 5-7.
Number two seed Dominic Thiem was ousted by Pierre-Hugues Herbert in the quarterfinals.
Martin Klizan was the defending champion, but lost in the quarterfinals to Tomas Berdych.
Photo credit: ABN AMRO
