SAN FRANCISCO — The 2025 Laver Cup kicked off on Friday night time, drawing the primary of 5 enormous crowds — which is anticipated to end in a grand weekend complete of some 82,000 tennis followers — to the Chase Middle.
Workforce Europe cleaned up on this first session, successful each of the singles matches to take a 2-0 level complete over Workforce World (aka, each place that isn’t Europe) on this eighth annual event named in honor of Australian tennis legend Rod Laver.
The staff that racks up 13 factors is asserted the champion. So far, Workforce Europe has been in a position to accomplish that feat rather more ceaselessly than Workforce World — and holds an all-time 5-2 edge in Laver Cup play.
Having gained the trophy in Berlin final yr, Workforce Europe picked up the place it left off as world No. 12 Casper Ruud (Norway) defeated No. 60 Reilly Opelka (U.S.) in a really aggressive match to begin the afternoon session.
Workforce Europe stayed on target within the second half of the doubleheader as No. 17 Jakub Mensik (Czechoslovakia) triumphed over one other American — No. 32 Alex Michelsen — in a topsy-turvy match.
The Michigan-born, Florida-raised Opelka acquired off to a very sturdy begin as Ruud actually struggled early on to make any type of a dent into the American’s service video games. The 26-year-old Norwegian would mainly blink and it will be 40-0. On the flip aspect, Ruud wasn’t getting any simple factors on his serve and confronted two break factors in his very first service recreation.
But, Ruud simply saved proper on enjoying good protection — racing round Laver Cup’s black hardcourt — and by some means managing to return serves that reached 130 mph. Then, in the course of the fifth recreation of the primary set, Ruud lastly acquired an opportunity to interrupt and managed to push forward on the scoreboard, thanks with a backhand winner.
Ruud shortly solidified the break, upping the ante on his personal service recreation whereas specializing in turning protection into offense as he saved his nostril out in entrance and completed off the primary set 6-4.
Ruud made an enormous push at the beginning of the second set, trying to mainly stick a fork within the match by successful the 28-year-old American’s preliminary service recreation. However the hard-serving Opelka withstood the cost.
They’d commerce physique blows because the match continued, but neither one may ship a knockout punch because the match stayed on serve. Every participant noticed small home windows to interrupt — or, at the least, get right into a place to interrupt — nevertheless it turned out {that a} tiebreaker can be essential to determine the Set 2.
Ruud struck first within the breaker, going up on the American 3-1 on his strategy to a ultimate 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) rating.
Workforce Europe 1, Workforce World 0.
Alex Michelsen of Workforce World returns a shot towards Jakub Mensik of Workforce Europe throughout day one in every of Laver Cup 2025 at Chase Middle on Sept. 19, 2025 in San Francisco, California. (Picture by Ezra Shaw/Getty Photos for Laver Cup)
The second match, between Mensik and Michelsen, was barely even aggressive in the course of the first set — with the 20-year-old Czech dominating in mainly each aspect of the game, and the 21-year-old Orange County native wanting like he was out of his league.
Mensik broke Michelsen twice on the way in which to a 4-0 lead, due to a lot of good backhand pictures, and actually was by no means in any hazard of dropping throughout a massively lopsided first set that wasn’t at the same time as shut because the 6-1 rating would possibly point out.
But, it was a special story — and seemingly an entire totally different participant — within the second set, as Michelsen confirmed the type of deft serving contact, wide-ranging protection and circus-shot-making capability that has commentators so enthusiastic about his future in American tennis.
They had been nonetheless on serve going into the eighth recreation of the second set, earlier than Mensik lastly broke serve to take a commanding 5-3 lead. But, he wouldn’t have the ability to maintain it because the American broke proper again. The extent of tennis was merely off the charts because the set approached the end line, with Michelsen mainly lifting his recreation to match that of Mensik, on the way in which to forcing a second set tiebreak — which the American ended up successful decisively, 7-3.
With one set belonging to every man, we would wish the primary “Laver Breaker” of the event to determine issues. It’s a 10-point tiebreaker, with the extra caveat that you should win by two factors.
Michelsen served to begin this ultimate breaker and ended up double-faulting. He’d then go on to lose the following three factors, pushing Mensik up 4-0. The American ended up making it aggressive within the later levels of the breaker, nevertheless it wasn’t sufficient to keep away from falling 10-8.
Workforce Europe 2, Workforce World 0.
Each Michelsen and Mensik had been set to return to play within the night time session, partnering up with world No. 4 Taylor Fritz (USA) and No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz (Spain), respectively, for a doubles match.
The Laver Cup continues in San Francisco by means of Sunday. Go to lavercup.com for particulars.
