Laver Cup Day 1: Team Europe dominates early tournament play in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO The Laver Cup kicked off on Friday night drawing the first of five huge crowds which is expected to development in a grand weekend total of specific tennis fans to the Chase Center Club Europe cleaned up in this first session winning both of the singles matches to take a - point total over Association World aka every place that is not Europe in this eighth annual tournament named in honor of Australian tennis legend Rod Laver The band that racks up points is declared the champion Thus far Squad Europe has been able to accomplish that feat much more frequently than Unit World and holds an all-time - edge in Laver Cup play Having won the trophy in Berlin last year Unit Europe picked up where it left off as world No Casper Ruud Norway defeated No Reilly Opelka U S in a very competitive match to start the afternoon session Unit Europe stayed on class in the second half of the doubleheader as No Jakub Mensik Czechoslovakia triumphed over another American No Alex Michelsen in a topsy-turvy match The Michigan-born Florida-raised Opelka got off to a really strong start as Ruud really struggled early on to make any kind of a dent into the American s function games The -year-old Norwegian would basically blink and it would be - On the flip side Ruud wasn t getting any easy points on his serve and faced two break points in his very first institution competition Yet Ruud just kept right on playing good defense racing around Laver Cup s black hardcourt and somehow managing to return serves that reached mph Then during the fifth battle of the first set Ruud absolutely got a chance to break and managed to push ahead on the scoreboard thanks with a backhand winner Ruud hastily solidified the break upping the ante on his own provision battle while focusing on turning defense into offense as he kept his nose out in front and finished off the first set - Ruud made a big push at the start of the second set looking to basically stick a fork in the match by winning the -year-old American s initial system event But the hard-serving Opelka withstood the charge They d arrangement body blows as the match continued yet neither one could deliver a knockout punch as the match stayed on serve Each sportsman saw small windows to break or at least get into a position to break but it turned out that a tiebreaker would be necessary to decide the Set Ruud struck first in the breaker going up on the American - on his way to a final - - - figure Club Europe Group World Alex Michelsen of Group World returns a shot against Jakub Mensik of Company Europe during day one of Laver Cup at Chase Center on Sept in San Francisco California Photo by Ezra Shaw Getty Images for Laver Cup The second match between Mensik and Michelsen was barely even competitive during the first set with the -year-old Czech dominating in basically every facet of the sport and the -year-old Orange County native looking like he was out of his league Mensik broke Michelsen twice on the way to a - lead thanks to a number of good backhand shots and really was never in any danger of losing during a massively lopsided first set that wasn t even as close as the - outcome might indicate Yet it was a different story and seemingly a whole different contestant in the second set as Michelsen displayed the kind of deft serving touch wide-ranging defense and circus-shot-making ability that has commentators so excited about his future in American tennis They were still on serve going into the eighth battle of the second set before Mensik conclusively broke serve to take a commanding - lead Yet he wouldn t be able to hold it as the American broke right back The level of tennis was merely off the charts as the set approached the finish line with Michelsen basically lifting his contest to match that of Mensik on the way to forcing a second set tiebreak which the American ended up winning decisively - Related Articles Revisiting Clayton Kershaw s preponderance memorable moments against SF Giants Which Sharks prospects have impressed coach Ryan Warsofsky early in camp ers likely to start Mac Jones with Brock Purdy questionable Goodell visits San Francisco to kick off countdown to Super Bowl Bay Area football teams losing games as Santa Cruz Leland forfeit matchups with McClymonds Santa Teresa With one set belonging to each man we would need the first Laver Breaker of the tournament to decide matters It s a -point tiebreaker with the additional caveat that you must win by two points Michelsen served to start this final breaker and ended up double-faulting He d then go on to lose the next three points pushing Mensik up - The American ended up making it competitive in the later stages of the breaker but it wasn t enough to avoid falling - Unit Europe Company World Both Michelsen and Mensik were set to return to play in the night session partnering up with world No Taylor Fritz USA and No Carlos Alcaraz Spain respectively for a doubles match The Laver Cup continues in San Francisco through Sunday Visit lavercup com for details