Zverev misses the lead at the Laver Cup – Federer praises him, sees Sinner still ahead

Germany's tennis star Alexander Zverev missed out on taking the lead again for Team Europe in a duel with the world team at the Laver Cup. The world number two had to admit defeat against the Australian Alex De Minaur 9:11 in the match tiebreak in London after missing a match point. After two sets it was 6:2, 6:7 (5:7) from Zverev's perspective.

There were two points for the victory, which gave Team World a 5:3 lead. At the end of the second day of competition, Zverev is scheduled for the doubles match with Norwegian Casper Ruud. The show event ends on Sunday. 13 points are necessary for victory.

Federer raves about Zverev - but still sees Sinner ahead

Zverev had previously been praised by Laver Cup initiator and tennis icon Roger Federer. The Hamburg native is “finally where we all hoped he would be one day: he is a Grand Slam champion,” said the 45-year-old Swiss.

For him, the best player of the year was the Italian Jannik Sinner, who had been injured for more than two months, “simply because he exercised sheer dominance in the Masters 1000 tournaments and played great until his injury.”

Zverev's chances of becoming number one in the world rankings

Nevertheless, Zverev has come a little closer to his big goal of becoming number one in the tennis world. The currently leading Sinner announced on Friday that he would not take part in the ATP tournament in Beijing due to persistent knee problems. As a result, the defending champion cannot defend his 500 points from last year. He also has significantly more points to defend in the remaining tournaments until the end of the season compared to Zverev. In the current live ranking, Zverev is only 1,370 points behind Sinner.

No world ranking points are awarded at the Laver Cup. It is a show event that is taken seriously by the protagonists. It was launched by Federer in 2017 and takes place annually. A team made up of the best European players competes against a team made up of the best players from the rest of the world.

The captain of Team Europe is currently the French ex-professional Yannick Noah, Team World is coached by the former number one Andre Agassi from the USA. His wife Steffi Graf, who celebrated 22 Grand Slam tournament victories in her career, watched the Zverev match from the stands.