Europe leads World at cup
CHICAGO: Team Europe holds a 75 lead over Team World before the final day’s action at the Laver Cup.
On day two, Roger Federer dazzled Nick Kyrgios 63, 62 while Novak Djokovic lost to Kevin Anderson 76 (75), 57, 106 in two grand slam rematches from this year.
Alexander Zverev overcame new dad Josh Isner 36, 76 (86), 107 in the first match on court before Kyrgios teamed up with Jack Sock in the evening session to defeat the pair of Grigor Dimitrov and David Goffin 63, 64.
The roars at the United Centre were reserved more for underdog Team World but there was no escaping Federer’s casual brilliance against Kyrgios.
It took just three games for Federer to break the Australian in the opening set, but he waited for a shorter period in the second, breaking him at love in his first service game with a masterful combination of play that sent the capacity crowd to rapture.
At times, Kyrgios also was sharp and sent blitzing passing shots past Federer, but the world No 2 was the superior player and won 22 more points.
‘‘I felt good from the beginning and that’s not usual,’’ Federer said in his postmatch interview courtside.
‘‘We need some matches to get going but today I was very clear in my game plan and I got wonderful support from my team.’’
Things were starting to look problematic for Team World after Kyrgios’ defeat and John Isner’s earlier loss to Zverev, but Anderson provided a timely tonic to swing some momentum.
Djokovic, winner of the past two grand slam titles, doublefaulted on set point to give the South African the advantage.
The world No 3 Serb fought back to break Anderson at 55 in the second set and served it out to level the score but he could not get the job done in the thirdset tiebreaker.
‘‘We’ve had some really close matches that haven’t gone our way and I really wanted to put us back in there,’’ Anderson said of the turnaround in Team World’s fortunes after recording his first triumph over Djokovic in a decade.
Four matches remain on today, each worth three points, with doubles to be followed by three singles rubbers. — DPA