After the first day of the Laver Cup, Europe leads Team World 3-1

Following the opening day of the international tennis competition, world number one Carlos Alcaraz, who recently won the US Open at Flushing Meadows, eased into the Laver Cup on Friday with a doubles victory that increased Europe's lead over Team World to 3-1.

In the final doubles of the day, Spain's Alcaraz and Czech Jakub Mensik upset Team World's American pair of Taylor Fritz and Alex Michelsen 7-6 (9/7), 6-4.

After defeating Michelsen 6-1, 6-7 (3/7), 10-8 in singles, it was Mensik's second win of the day.

In the ninth game of the second set, the Czech served for the match and was broken. However, he recovered to win the 10-point match tiebreaker after losing to Michelsen in the second set.

"It's always tough for your nerves, but I'm happy that I stayed focused to the end," Mensik, who is 20 years old, said.

At the Chase Center, home of the NBA's Golden State Warriors, Casper Ruud of Norway opened the European match with a 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) victory over big-serving American Reilly Opelka.

"I was in the same position last year and lost the opening match, so it's good to get some revenge and begin strong for Europe," Ruud stated.

Joao Fonseca, a debutant to the Laver Cup, defeated Flavio Cobolli of Europe 6-4, 6-3 to earn a point for Team World.

With a sizable number of Brazilian supporters supporting him, the 19-year-old Brazilian overcame a 2-4 deficit in the opening set and broke twice in the second to win.

This year, Fonseca won his first ATP title in Buenos Aires. "I tried to stay positive during the match," he stated. "I was a little bit more nervous than usual, which is normal."

Although Team World won the competition's most recent North American staging in 2023 in Vancouver, Switzerland, which was co-created by the legendary Roger Federer, Europe has won five of the event's seven previous iterations.

Since Alcaraz sealed Europe's victory in Berlin last year, a few things have changed. Yannick Noah of France has replaced Bjorn Borg as Team Europe's captain, and Andre Agassi of the United States has replaced John McEnroe as Team World's leader.

Each match on Friday was worth one point. Three singles and one doubles match, each earning two points, are also on Saturday's agenda.

The doubles portion of Sunday's schedule comes first, followed by three singles matches, each worth three points.

The cup is won by the first team to reach 13 points.