Carlos Alcaraz and Taylor Fritz played out a thriller at the Laver Cup on Saturday. The Spaniard recorded a hard-fought 6-3, 4-6, 13-11 victory to provide Team Europe with an important result after they lost two matches earlier in the day. He made good use of his forehand during the match, hitting multiple winners. Even Fritz hilariously admitted that he was scared as the ball rolled towards Alcaraz’s forehand.

“I do get a little scared rolling to his [Alcaraz] forehand,” he told Alex de Minaur during a changeover. Despite giving a solid performance, Fritz wasn’t able to break past Alcaraz’s resilience, who saved two match points and eventually triumphed in the tiebreaker.

“Two great and tough losses today and obviously I was thinking a little bit about last year, [when] we lost every match on Saturday,” Alcaraz said in his on-court interview. “Coming into the match, I was trying not to let it happen again. So I was kind of nervous at the beginning, I’m not going to lie. But really happy that I took the win at the end.”

Alcaraz hit 42 winners during the match in comparison to Fritz’s 20. But the Spaniard would want to improve on his unforced errors as he committed 30 of them while his opponent only committed nine. Neither of them was able to control the match for longer periods, but Alcaraz pulled through in the breaker.

Despite facing a match point at 10-11, he didn’t lose his composure and levelled the score before clinching the next two points to win the match. Alcaraz also made great use of the drop shot during the match and even won the last point through that.

“I feel the drop shot is part of my game… I am trying to use it in my favour. I think the drop shots that I made in the match, I think that I won if not every drop shot, at least a really high percentage of [them]. So in those really close and important moments, I tried to use it because it was a really good weapon for me in this match,” Alcaraz added.

Alcaraz’s victory levelled the tie at 5-5. This was Team Europe’s first win of the day. Earlier, Learner Tien had defeated Flavio Cobolli 6-3, 2-6, 10-7, and Alex de Minaur downed Alexander Zverev 2-6, 7-6, 11-9. Despite beginning the day on a positive note, Team World lost the lead of the tie by the end.

The duo of Zverev and Casper Ruud racked up an important 6-4, 7-6 victory over Brandon Nakashima and Alexander Bublik. This result handed a 7-5 lead to Team Europe heading into Sunday, which will be the final day of play.

Multiple high-profile clashes will be played on the final day of the Laver Cup

The action will begin with Zverev taking on Tien. Then, Alcaraz will make his final appearance of the tournament and will lock horns against de Minaur. The last singles clash of the day will be played between Rafael Jodar and Fritz.

The last match of the tournament will see Flavio Cobolli and Jakub Mensik take on de Minaur and Fritz. Notably, the tie can be decided even before the doubles clash, as the first team to reach 13 points will win the title.

All the matches are worth three points on the final day, so Team Europe can win the tie by clinching the first two matches. But it won’t be easy, as Team World won’t be going down without a fight.

They have won three of the last four editions of the Laver Cup and can very well make a last-ditch comeback. It remains to be seen how things will pan out on the third and final day of the Laver Cup.