Taylor Fritz levels Laver Cup for Team World with win over Norrie, Djokovic defeats Tiafoe

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Taylor Fritz levels Laver Cup for Team World with win over Norrie, Djokovic defeats Tiafoe
Updated
Fritz needed a deciding tie break to beat the Brit Norrie
Fritz needed a deciding tie break to beat the Brit Norrie
Reuters
American Taylor Fritz (24) drew Team World level at 4-4 in the Laver Cup on Saturday with a narrow victory over Team Europe's Cameron Norrie (27) after the hosts' Matteo Berrettini (26) had beaten Felix Auger-Aliassime (22) in the day's opener.

It was a case of the day after the night before at London's O2 Arena after Roger Federer's tear-jerking farewell match alongside Rafa Nadal had dominated day one.

Spaniard Nadal withdrew from the team event for personal reasons but now retired 20-time Grand Slam champion Federer was back on duty, albeit from courtside offering his words of wisdom to his Europe team mates.

Italian Berrettini, who replaced Federer in the singles, edged out Auger-Aliassime 7-6(11) 4-6 10-7 in a hard-hitting contest that had another huge crowd captivated.

But Fritz showed that John McEnroe's team are made of sterner stuff this year having been thrashed 14-1 last year in Boston, the fourth edition of the event.

He began like a house on fire against Norrie, himself a replacement for record 22-time major champion Nadal.

Norrie began slowly and Fritz took full advantage to win the opener 6-1 but the obdurate Norrie dug in deep to level the match after breaking at 4-4 in the second set.

The British player had the momentum but he slipped 8-4 behind in the match tiebreaker before being gifted a few points to level at 8-8. But Fritz would not be denied and claimed victory as Norrie struck a forehand long.

Fritz's Team World teammates celebrated loudly with Frances Tiafoe especially pumped up.

"I live for these moments," Fritz said on court. "I was so locked in and ready to go."

Later on, Djokovic brought some stunning tennis to London with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Tiafoe.

Djokovic issued a statement of intent as he picked up where he left off when beating Nick Kyrgios on Wimbledon's Centre Court to reach 21 Grand Slam titles.

Not even Federer could have improved on a first set in which Djokovic did not drop a point on serve and landed his precision groundstrokes near the lines with relentless regularity.

Tiafoe went a break down early in the second set but gained some traction to push back hard and had a break point that Djokovic repelled in masterful fashion.

Djokovic then wrapped it up in little more than an hour.

The day concludes with Djokovic alongside Berrettini taking on Australia's Alex De Minaur and American Sock.

Individual matches were worth one point on Friday, two on Saturday and three on Sunday.

Follow the Laver Cup with Flashscore.

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