Laver Cup: Team Europe lead 3-1 despite Federer-Djokovic’s shock defeat

Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic’s doubles debut ended in a defeat as the pair of Kevin Anderson and Jack Sock ran out the winner in the opening day of the 2018 Laver Cup on Friday.

The defeat, however, little harm to Team Europe, who are still leading 3-1.

Kevin Anderson and Jack Sock of Team World came from being a set down to level the game before defeating the Federer- Djokovic duo in a third set tie-breaker. They won 6-7, 6-3, 10-6 over the dream doubles pair, to pull one back after Team Europe had won all the opening three games.

Earlier, Grigor Dimitrov, David Goffin and Kyle Edmund had won all of their respective singles match to exert Team Europe’s dominance and increase to lead to 3-0 with only the doubles match to play.

While Dimitrov beat Frances Tiafoe 6-1, 6-4, David Goffin overcame the tough resistance of Diego Schwartzman 6-4, 4-6, 11-9. Edmund then won in a similar fashion bouncing back in the decider game after his opponent Sock had levelled the scores at 1-1. Kyle beat Sock 6-4, 5-7, 10-6.

The 2018 tournament is the second edition of the Laver Cup after first premier of the vent last year. It features the world’s top 12 players, who play each other in two groups in a three-day tournament in Chicago, USA.

The games are played in indoor stadiums and involves a three-set match, where a 1-1 tie at the end of two sets lead to a 10-point tie-breaker to decide the winner. On Saturdays, every teams gets two points each for a victory, as compared to the one point rule on Fridays and Sundays.

The European team captained by Bjorn Borg, consists of Federer, Djokovic, Alexander Zverev, Dimitrov, Goffin and Edmund.

Similarly, the Team World is captained by the legendary John McEnroe. The player featuring for the team are Sock, Nick Kyrgios, John Isner, Tiafoe, Anderson and Schwartzman.

The event is named in the honour of Australian tennis legend Rod Laver, who won a record 200 singles titles, 11 Grand Slams and five Davis Cups in his playing career.

Also read: Asia Cup 2018: I will always remember this comeback – Ravindra Jadeja