CHICAGO—Alexander Zverev beat Kevin Anderson on Sunday night to give Team Europe a victory in the second Laver Cup.
Zverev won the final five points to defeat Anderson, 6-7, 7-5, (10-7). His victory helped Team Europe beat Team World, 13-8.
“Obviously it was an amazing feeling,” Zverev said. “So special to clinch it for us guys and Europe. It’s great how it ended.”
Anderson, who lost in the Wimbledon finals this year, said on Sunday night’s setback affected more than just him.
“You’re playing for something different. You feel like you didn’t come through for the team,” he said.
Had Anderson won, Nick Kyrgios of the World team would have played Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic in a deciding singles match. But it was not necessary because the European team had reached 13 points.
Roger Federer earlier put Team Europe ahead by saving three match points for a 6-7, 7-6, (10-7) victory over John Isner.
Isner staggered Federer with a body serve that caused the 20-time Grand Slam winner to stumble early in the match. But Federer regrouped and fought off two match points in the second-set tiebreaker before capturing the deciding 10-point tiebreaker used in the Laver Cup.
In the opening doubles match, Jack Sock and Isner saved two match points in the deciding tiebreaker to beat Federer and Zverev 4-6, 7-6, (11-9).
The three-day, five-session tournament at the United Center drew 93,584 fans.
Team Europe won the first Laver Cup last year in Prague. The tournament moves to Geneva, Switzerland, next year.
Dominic Thiem, meanwhile, breezed past Martin Klizan 6-3, 6-1 to win the Saint Petersburg Open on Sunday in Russia.
Thiem held serve throughout and wrapped up the win in just one hour and eight minutes to take his third title of the season.
It was the big-hitting Austrian’s first final since losing the French Open final to Rafael Nadal.
Thiem, ranked eighth in the world, hadn’t won a hard-court title since beating Bernard Tomic at the Mexican Open in February 2016 and his previous seven finals were all on clay.
The 2012 champion in Saint Petersburg, Klizan lost his unbeaten record in tour finals which had stood at six, the joint-highest on the tour.
In Seoul Kiki Bertens won her third Women’s Tennis Association Tour singles title of the season on Sunday and denied Ajla Tomljanovic her career first with a 7-6 (2), 4-6, 6-2 win over the Croatian-born Australian.
The second-seeded Bertens, who won the final six games of the match, was a service break down twice in the first set, but fought back to level and then dominated the tiebreaker thanks to a strong first serve.
Bertens was behind 2-0 in the second set before coming back to take a 4-3 lead with a break, but Tomljanovic broke in the 10th game when Bertens netted a forehand, giving the Australian the second set.
Tomljanovic again took a 2-0 lead in the final set, hitting a blistering forehand to the back of the court on break point that Bertens could only watch streak past her. But the Dutch player again staged a comeback, not dropping another game.
The consolation prize for Tomljanovic, who ended Hsieh Su-wei’s eight-match winning streak in the semifinals, will be a big jump in the rankings.
Tomljanovic, who has lost all three WTA finals she has contested, was ranked in the 900s nearly three years ago due to persistent shoulder problems. But she has moved steadily up in the rankings and is projected to reach at least No. 44 next week.
The No. 12-ranked Bertens had dropped only one set going in to the final, while Tomljanovic needed three sets in each of her previous matches.
Daria Kasatkina, on the other hand, recorded her first victory over Lesia Tsurenko in three attempts in the first round of the Wuhan Open on Sunday as US Open champion Naomi Osaka was forced to pull out of the tournament due to a viral illness.
Kasatkina, the No. 13 seeded Russian, defeated her Ukrainian opponent 6-4, 7-5 to set up a second round match against either Bernarda Pera or the US Open junior champion and qualifier Wang Xiyu.
No. 7-ranked Osaka withdrew from the tournament being played in Wuhan, China, after losing in the final of the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo on Sunday with lucky loser Polona Hercog replacing her in the main draw.
“I’m very sorry to have to withdraw from Wuhan. I look forward to playing in Wuhan next year,” Osaka said in a statement.
Earlier this week, former top-ranked Victoria Azarenka also pulled out after she was forced to retire in the quarterfinals in Tokyo due to a viral illness.
In other first round matches, the Chinese duo of Zheng Saisai and Zhang Shuai won their first round matches.
Zhang stunned Australian Samantha Stosur 6-2, 6-2, while Zheng defeated American Danielle Collins after losing the first set 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Julia Goerges, Monica Puig, Katerina Siniakova and Aliaksandra Sasnovich also advanced to the second round.
Image credits: AP