Carlos Alcaraz gets a dream doubles partner for Laver Cup debut
09/19/2024 03:04 PM
Carlos Alcaraz is the star attraction in Berlin as he prepares to play in the Laver Cup for the first time and he is set to form a potent doubles team on the opening night front of a sell-out crowd.
Tickets to watch the most extravagant exhibition in tennis are never cheap, but the fans in Germany should get good value for money tomorrow night as they will see Alcaraz and Germany’s Alexander Zverev line-up in what looks to be a potent doubles painting for Team Europe.
The explosive all-America duo of Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton will be squaring up to Alcaraz and Zverev, with the final match on Day 1 of the event set to be the most anticipated.
"We battled a few times this year, so to have the chance to play on the same side of the net, it's going to be great, going to be fun," said Alcaraz as he looked forward to his combination with Zverev.
"Obviously with his serves and me at the net, it's going to be easy work for me.
"I’m really excited to be part of this event. I’m looking forward to meeting the fellas here.
"When I watch it on TV it is a really good atmosphere between us, supporting (each other) during the whole match.
"I'm going to do whatever it takes or whatever I have in my hand to help Team Europe to bring back the trophy and let’s see – it’s going to be a tough one.
"I think we have a really good team that we can bring it back.
"It's a serious competition. I think we have to represent Europe, you know, in the best way possible. The prestige that this tournament has, and, being a Laver Cup champion is a huge thing.”
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Alcaraz is also relishing the chance to play alongside players who are his rivals as he added: "Having a lot of time with them and speaking with them about something else, not only tennis, is going to be different … and I like different things."
The Laver Cup gets underway on Friday with Europe’s Casper Ruud taking on Team World’s Francisco Cerundolo.
Match 2 will see Team Europe’s Stefanos Tsitsipas take on Team World’s Thanasi Kokkinakis and the opening match of the evening session will be between Europe’s Grigor Dimitrov and Chile’s Alejandro Tabilo, representing Team World.
The Alcaraz/Zverev vs Fritz/Shelton doubles match will follow after that, with Europe trying to win the Laver Cup after two years of success for Team World.
Laver Cup Explainer
- The tournament consists of five sessions played over three days (Friday – Sunday).
- Both singles and doubles are best of three sets with ad scoring. In the event of split sets, the third set is a 10-point match tiebreaker.
- Each player competes in at least one singles match during the first two days.
- No player can play singles more than twice during the three days.
- At least four of the six players must play doubles. No doubles combination is played more than once, unless for the Decider on Day 3, if points are 12:12.
- The winning team must reach 13 points.
- In the event of a tie after all 12 matches are played, a final overtime doubles match – a Decider – is played as a regular set with ad scoring and a tiebreak.
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