Zverev gambles victory against de Minaur

Germany's tennis star Alexander Zverev missed out on another lead for Team Europe in a duel with the world selection at the Laver Cup. The second in the world rankings had to admit defeat in London to Australian Alex de Minaur with 9:11 in the match tiebreak after he had awarded a match ball. After two sets, it had stood 6:2, 6:7 (5:7) from Zverev's point of view. For the win, there were two points that made for a 5-3lead for Team World.

At the end of the second day of competition, Zverev is still scheduled for the double with the Norwegian Casper Ruud. The show event ends on Sunday. 13 points are required to win. Federer raves about Zverev - but sees Sinner still ahead of praise for Zverev had previously been given by Laver Cup initiator and tennis icon Roger Federer.

The hamburger is "finally where we all hoped he would be one day: he is a Grand Slam champion," said the 45-year-old Swiss. Nevertheless, the best player of the year for him is the Italian Jannik Sinner, who has been injured for more than two months, "simply because he exercised sheer dominance at the Masters 1000 tournaments and played great until his injury". Nevertheless, Zverev has come a step closer to his big goal of becoming the number one tennis player in the world. The current leader Sinner announced on Friday his withdrawal from the ATP tournament in Beijing due to persistent knee problems.

As a result, the defending champion cannot defend his 500 points from the previous year. He also has significantly more points to defend in the remaining tournaments until the end of the season compared to Zverev. In the current live ranking, Zverev's deficit on Sinner is only 1,370 points. No world ranking points will be awarded in the Laver Cup.

It is a show event, but the protagonists take it seriously. It was launched by Federer in 2017 and takes place annually. A team of the best European players competes against a team of the best players in the rest of the world. The captain of Team Europe is currently the French ex-professional Yannick Noah, Team World is coached by the former number one, Andre Agassi from the USA.

His wife Steffi Graf, who celebrated 22 Grand Slam tournament victories in her career, watched the Zverev match from the stands.