On September 20, Laver Cup 2024 kicked off with 4 matches, including 3 singles and 1 doubles, opening with the confrontation between Casper Ruud and Francisco Cerundolo.
Although Ruud was ranked higher, when the score before this match was 3-3, experts were hesitant about the Norwegian's ability to win. Reality confirmed that, when Cerundolo was the one who scored the first point for the World Team.
The Argentine player won 6-4, 6-4 after 1 hour and 39 minutes of play.
However, the score was quickly equalized when Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated Thanasis Kokkinakis also in 2 sets.
The Greek player showed his dominance over his Australian opponent, who was participating in the Laver Cup for the first time, by winning two early breaks to lead 5-0 and then ending the first set with a score of 6-1.
All efforts of the world's 78th ranked player could only help him win 4 games in set 2, and with another early break, Tsitsipas won 6-4 in set 2.
The third singles match was more tense, as Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov - who replaced Rafael Nadal who withdrew - took on Chilean Alejandro Tabilo.
The similarity in most of the stats explains why this match had to go to a tie-break, where Dimitrov was more stable to win after 2 sets with the scores 7-6(4), 7-6(2).
Team Europe took a 2-1 lead after the singles, before Alexander Zverev and Carlos Alcaraz played doubles against Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton.
As the higher rated individuals, however, Zverev and Alcaraz are not doubles specialists so they lost after 2 sets with the score of 6-7(5), 4-6.
With only 1 point for each win on the first day of competition, the score between Team Europe and Team World is currently 2-2.
The second day of competition will be 2 points for each win.
