Laver Cup: Taylor Fritz defeats Cameron Norrie to draw Team World level with Team Europe on Day 2
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Updated 24/09/2022 at 16:57 GMT
After falling behind to Team Europe when Matteo Berrettini defeated Felix Auger-Aliassime earlier on Saturday afternoon, Team World rallied to make the overall score 4-4 when Cameron Norrie was beaten by America's Taylor Fritz. Fritz raced into an early lead but some resilience from his British opponent took the match to a hotly contested tie-break.
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Taylor Fritz beat Cameron Norrie 6-1 4-6 10-8 to earn Team World a victory over Team Europe on Saturday afternoon.
Speaking after his win, Fritz explained he had revelled in the high-pressure environment at the O2.
He said: "There’s a really big difference between 6-2 and 4-4 so both of us were definitely feeling the nerves out there. I love being in these positions and I was just happy I could bring it for the team.
"I was just so locked and ready to go. I live for these moments playing and this kind of atmosphere in such an important match.
"It was incredible [the atmosphere] especially with me still being on team world and us being in London the support was still amazing and it felt great."
Looking ahead for the upcoming matches, he pointed to Frances Tiafoe as a particularly capable player to call upon.
"This is the first year we haven’t really dug ourselves a deep hole mid-day two going into day three," he continued. "We’ve got doubles coming up, we’ve got Tiafoe coming up, we have a lot of our string matches still to come."
Fritz and Norrie took to the court after Matteo Berrettini had beaten Canada’s - and Team World’s - Felix Auger-Aliassime to restore Europe’s lead.
However Fritz blitzed the opening three rounds as he went 3-0 up against the Briton with two breaks early on, encouraged from the sidelines by his team-mates.
That pace continued as the American pressed and moved 5-1 up as coach John McEnroe oversaw his success.
Norrie started strongly by winning the first game of the second set, moving over to Andy Murray on the sidelines for more advice and encouragement.
McEnroe looked on with no little frustration as Norrie continued the fight back as he went 2-0 up to give himself a chance by using his improving serve to build on that early break.
However Fritz was able to break back and put Norrie under pressure, breaking and also holding a service game to edge back ahead.
Roger Federer also offered advice to Norrie, that he flatten out his forehands, but he struggled to meet the requirements and was pushed hard to hold his serve. By serving wide - also at the suggestion of the now-retired Swiss - he was able to take it to 3-3.
Fritz responded by standing wide to receive serves, forcing Norrie down the middle, which dented the tactic’s effectiveness but nevertheless, Norrie was able to break and at 5-4 could serve for the second set, and he moved the match to a tie-breaker set.
The American emerged re-energised with the end in sight, and he moved into a 4-1 lead to give himself an excellent chance of closing out the match. His lead narrowed to 8-6 and then 8-7 with an unforced error close to the net, but he was able to push on to 10-8 and victory, to level the scores between the two teams at 4-4.
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