“Don’t jinx anything!” Casper Ruud, Carlos Alcaraz tee up repeat Laver Cup comeback

Team Europe trailed Team World 8-4 on the final day of 2024 Laver Cup only to kick off Day 3 with a doubles win from Carlos Alcaraz and Casper Ruud and complete a 13-11 comeback with back-to-back singles wins from Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev.

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Down 9-3 when play kicked off on Sunday, Alcaraz and Ruud have repeated the first leg of that path to victory for Team Europe, defeating Team World’s Alex Michelsen and Reilly Opelka, 7-6 (4), 6-1.

“Don’t jinx anything here,” Ruud said when reminded of last year. “But let’s try. Obviously, that’s the goal and the plan, but Team World has their plan, so let’s see how it goes from here. But a great start for Team Europe.

“We fired each other up after a tough yesterday and night. I think we showed great grit and got the first match done. Let’s see if we can bring the fight from here.”

Indeed, Team Europe suffered a massive setback on Day 2 after opening with a strong bid for their sixth Laver Cup title, losing all four matches played on Saturday to head into Day 3 in a nearly must-win situation from the start of the day.

Michelsen and Opelka, by contrast, appeared on course to continue Team World’s streak when they navigated a tense opening set to take a 4-1 lead in the first-set tiebreaker, only for Alcaraz and Ruud to reel off the next six points and storm to a 5-0 lead in the second.

“A tiebreak can change in just one point,” said a smiling Alcaraz on court after the match, “so we stayed there and tried to put as many returns in as we could and played the rallies. I think we stayed really strong and really solid, feeling really clear about what we had to do. It went pretty well.”

Alcaraz will be back on court to play what could be a do-or-die singles match against Francisco Cerundolo following the clash between Jakub Mensik and Alex de Minaur.