Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz and the Czech Republic’s Jakub Mensik topped Americans Taylor Fritz and Alex Michelsen in the final match of the night and Team Europe took a 3-1 lead over Team World at the Laver Cup in San Francico on Friday.
The three-day hardcourt event features three singles matches and one doubles match per day, from Friday through Sunday. A match win Friday was worth one point. Wins are two points on Saturday and three points on Sunday. The first team to 13 points wins the event.
On Friday, Norway’s Casper Ruud opened play with a 6-4, 7-6 (4) win over Reilly Opelka for the first point. Mensik made it 2-0 in favor of Europe when he downed Michelsen 6-1, 6-7 (3), 10-8.
Brazil’s Joao Fonseca got a point back for Team World with a 6-4, 6-3 win Italy’s Flavio Cobolli, but the World squad was unable to even the score in the doubles match.
Chengdu Open
Chilean qualifier Alejandro Tabilo advanced to the quarterfinals at the by cruising past Italian No. 2 seed Luciano Darderi 6-4, 6-3 in Chengdu, China.
Tabilo, who’s fallen outside the top 100 in the world rankings after rising as high as No. 19, smashed 12 aces with only one double fault, went 4-for-4 saving break points and converted both his opportunities to break Darderi’s serve.
Another big winner was No. 4 seed Brandon Nakashima, who ousted defending champion Juncheng Shang of China 7-5, 6-3. Nakashima will meet fellow American Marcos Giron in the next round after Giron eliminated No. 8 seed Lorenzo Sonego of Italy 6-4, 6-4. Tabilo will face Aussie Christopher O’Connell, a 6-2, 6-4 victor over China’s Yi Zhou.
Lynx & Co Hangzhou Open
Elsewhere in China, Sebastian Korda sent a whopping 20 aces past Australia’s Adam Walton in a 7-5, 6-3 victory in the Round of 32 in Hangzhou, China.
The full Round of 16 is now set after Friday’s action, which also saw 2024 runner-up Zhizhen Zhang get past Yunchaokete Bu 6-7 (2), 6-4, 7-6 (3) in an all-Chinese showdown.
Australian qualifier Rinky Hijikata upset No. 5 seed Camilo Ugo Carabelli of Argentina 7-6 (2), 6-4. Other winners included Frenchmen Arthur Cazaux and Valentin Royer and Australia’s Aleksandar Vukic.
–Field Level Media
