SAN FRANCISCO – In the decisive match of the 2024 Laver Cup in Berlin, Carlos Alcaraz was too much for Taylor Fritz, and Team Europe took home the trophy. On Saturday night, Fritz got a measure of revenge.
Fritz stunned the World No. 1 and reigning US Open and French Open champion 6-3, 6-2 in front of a rowdy capacity crowd at the Chase Center.
"I knew what I had to do, it was just a question of whether I was going to be able to do it," said Fritz, the World No. 5, in an on-court interview after the match. "I played the big points with conviction. I didn't play it too safe."
It was his first win in four tries against Alcaraz, which included a tight four-setter in the Wimbledon semifinals in June. Fritz's win was the third straight for Team World on Saturday, giving the underdogs a 7-3 lead in the team competition heading into Saturday night's doubles match. The first team to secure 13 points wins the Laver Cup. Matches are worth two points on Saturday and three points on Sunday.
"I did a really good job of just hitting big, doing it consistently and pulling the trigger when I got the right balls and playing the important points pretty fearlessly," Fritz said after the match.
Alcaraz entered the match 61-6 in 2025.
In front of a crowd still buzzing from the pre-match appearance of Steph Curry and Roger Federer, Fritz broke Alcaraz in the fourth game, and rode that break to an early one-set lead. He hit 66 percent of his first serves and had just six unforced errors to Alcaraz’s nine.
In the second set, Fritz earned a break in the fifth game to take a 3-2 lead when Alcarez left a tantalizing drop short too short. World captain Andre Agassi backed up and gave Fritz a running high-five when he returned to the bench. Fritz earned a second break two games later, then served out the match, ending it with a forehand volley out of Alcaraz's reach.
"A lot of the decisive points in the match weren't so much off of him giving it to me," Fritz said. "I felt like I made it happen in those moments. Just start to finish, I played an amazing match and I went out and took it."
More Laver Cup 2025:
- Laver Cup schedule, results
- SN Q and A with Taylor Fritz
- Andre Agassi shows fire as Team World captain
- Yannick Noah's tennis journey like no other
- Brazilian phenom Joao Fonseca keeps rising
- Aussie Alex De Minaur answers the call
- The rise of the Laver Cup