SAN FRANCISCO – In order to compete against heavily favored Team Europe at the Laver Cup, someone on Team World was going to have to pull off an upset.
Mission accomplished for Alex de Minaur.
The Australian opened Saturday’s play at the Chase Center by knocking off World No. 3 Alexander Zverev 6-1, 6-4, pulling Team World even 3-3 with Team Europe after four matches.
“It was a good day at the office,” de Minaur said.
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Zverev entered the match having beaten de Minaur in 8 of their 10 career matchups, but de Minaur said he worked with captain Andre Agassi and vice captain Patrick Rafter on strategies to combat Zverev in the days leading up to the match.
“I've always been open in terms of getting information and I'm very happy that it all kind of came together,” de Minaur said. “I was able to execute today on a great game plan.”
That game plan included coming to the net more, taking advantage of his speed in relatively slow indoor conditions. De Minaur won 67 percent of his 25 trips to the net
“I had to look at different parts of the court to try and expose him,” he said. “And that was where, kind of, the variety of the slices, the short angles, coming to the net. It just kind of extended my playbook a little bit today.”
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The second set was tight, with a flurry of late breaks that ratched up the tension. De Minaur broke Zverev for a 4-3 lead, but the German broke right back. Undaunted, de Minaur broke again, then managed to close out the match on serve by winning a 19-shot rally with a backhand volley.
De Minaur was aware of his 2-8 record head-to-head, but said those matches are over an entire career and don’t reflect the type of player he is today and the level of tennis he has been playing lately.
“I believe I've been a very different player throughout my career, and when I was first starting on the tour, and where I am now are completely two different players,” de Minaur said. “And so I don't look into those head-to-heads too much in that sense. And I feel like I am capable of bringing this type of tennis and beating these type of players. I've just got to show it more often.”
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De Minaur originally was not going to participate given his extensive travel this summer, plus another six-week Asian swing coming up. When he returned home to play a Davis Cup match the week before the Laver Cup, he had a chance to stay home a bit and recover. When Team World suffered some injuries, they called back out to de Minaur to see if he was willing to participate.
Rafter said he didn’t want to lead that charge, because he didn’t want to put any extra pressure on him, but he was hoping de Minaur would join.
“It's tough on his body, it's tough on his mind,” Rafter said. “(When) he did say yes, and I knew he hadn't signed the contract, I was texting him saying, ‘Well done, mate. Can't wait to see you. And let's have some fun over here. And whatever you need, if you need to do nothing, and just relax and chill. You know, that's the environment we can do this in. And just get a feel of the court, and you'll be right. You know, you've played enough tennis. And let's enjoy the moment.’”
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De Minaur said playing for Rafter and Agassi was a big reason why he had a change of heart and they have made life as easy as they can for him in San Francisco.
“It's just been a great team environment, and it's been a very fun week for me,” de Minaur said.
He isn’t exactly ‘chilling’ as Rafter promised. De Minaur has a doubles match scheduled for later Saturday night when he will pair up with American Alex Michelsen to take on Casper Ruud and Holger Rune from Team Europe.
“I better go recover and come out with some good doubles tonight,” he said.
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