Rublev rallies to beat Schwartzman and give Team Europe 3-0 lead

Team Europe 3 – Team World 0; After Match 3

Rublev (Team Europe) def Schwartzman (Team World) 4-6, 6-3, 11-9

• What happened: Andrey Rublev came from a set down and a big deficit in the third set tiebreak against Diego Schwartzman before finally coming through to give Team Europe a 3-0 lead over Team World at Laver Cup.
• Why it matters: Team Europe has won all three editions of the Laver Cup so far and are aiming to make it four in a row in 2021. Team Europe has won all the three singles matches on Day 1 with a doubles match yet to come.
• You will also learn: Laver Cup’s unique scoring system means that Team World is far from out of the competition. Matches double in importance on Saturday (worth two points each) and triple on Sunday (worth three points apiece). The first team to 13 points wins the competition.

World No 5 Andrey Rublev scored a dramatic three-set win over Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman 4-6, 6-3, 11-9 in one hour and 50 minutes at the TD Garden in Boston to give Team Europe a 3-0 lead over Team World at the Laver Cup on Friday.

Earlier in the day, Casper Ruud and Matteo Berrettini had scored wins for Team Europe, beating Reilly Opelka and Felix Auger-Aliassime in the day session.

Rublev fights back after losing the first set

Schwartzman was the one who got off to the better start, as he won the first set 6-4, with Rublev winning only 19% of second serve points in the first set.

In the second set, it was Rublev who took the initiative, winning it 6-3. This time, it was Schwartzman, who struggled with his second serve – winning only 1 of 11 points on them – even as Rod Laver and Roger Federer watched on from the stands.

Rublev rallies to win the super tie-break after incredible match point

In the deciding third set super tie-break, Schwartzman was the one who built an early lead, going up 6-2 and then 8-5 before Rublev fought back to equal the score at 8-8.

It was the Russian who earned match point first. While he failed to convert the first one, he was able to win the second after an incredible 24-shot really to win the decider 11-9 to close out the win.

The fourth and final match of the day will be the doubles encounter with Team Europe’s Matteo Berrettini and Alexander Zverev taking on Team World’s John Isner and Denis Shapovalov.

HOW LAVER CUP SCORING WORKS

• The event is played over three days. On Friday and Saturday, there is a day and night session followed by a final single day session on Sunday.
• Each day four matches are played – three singles and a doubles.
• Both singles and doubles are best of three sets with ad scoring. In the event of split sets, the third set is a 10-point match tiebreaker.
• Each player competes in at least one singles match during the first two days.
• No player can play singles more than twice during the three days.
• At least four of the six players must play doubles. No doubles combination is played more than once, unless for the Decider on Day 3, if points are 12:12.
• The winning team must reach 13 points.
• In the event of a tie after all 12 matches are played, a final overtime doubles match – a Decider – is played as a regular set with ad scoring and a tiebreak.
• Friday’s lineup is announced on Thursday afternoon | Saturday’s lineup is announced an hour after play ends on Friday night | Sunday’s lineup is announced an hour after play ends on Saturday night | Match-ups are determined through the exchange of lineup cards by the captains.

Read also

Berrettini edges Auger-Aliassime with gritty comeback at Laver Cup

Tennis Majors

Read also

Ruud beats Opelka in straight sets as Europe take Laver Cup lead

Tennis Majors