Carlos Alcaraz bounces back from upset: Dominates Cerundolo to keep Team Europe's comeback alive

Carlos Alcaraz dominated Francisco Cerundolo in the third match of the night at the Laver Cup, reducing the score for Team Europe. The world No. 1 got revenge for his Saturday defeat with a convincing 6-2, 6-1 victory in his singles match this Sunday, keeping the Europeans' hopes alive.

After a second day to forget, it seemed that Team Europe was practically finished in this Laver Cup. Team World had built a 9-3 lead and was just two victories away from the title with four matches remaining on the final day.

At the start of the day, Alcaraz and Ruud teamed up to give the Europeans hope, starting with a straight-sets victory against Alex Michelsen and Reilly Opelka. Then came the singles matches, where world No. 8 Alex de Minaur asserted his status as favorite and claimed a convincing victory against Jakub Mensik with a 6-3, 6-4 score, leaving the series at 12-6 in points and Team World just one victory away from re-conquering the Laver Cup trophy.

With this, Alcaraz came out for the third match of the day looking to achieve his first win since returning to the top of the rankings. It's worth remembering that after winning the US Open title, Alcaraz reappeared on Saturday but suffered a surprising defeat to world No. 5 Taylor Fritz, the leader of Team World. This Sunday, the Spaniard got his revenge and revived his team's hopes.

It was not an easy match for Alcaraz, against the always complicated Francisco Cerúndolo. The Argentine, current world No. 21, had surprised Holger Rune in singles on Saturday with a straight-sets win (6-3, 7-6), and Alcaraz came into the match with his confidence shaken after the defeat to Fritz (3-6, 2-6). However, the Spaniard knew how to put everything behind him and took control of the match from the beginning.

In the first set, Alcaraz found a rhythm of play clearly higher than his opponent's, securing two consecutive breaks and taking a 5-0 lead. The 6-time major champion eased up a bit in the final part of the set, and Cerúndolo managed to recover one of the breaks, but it was not enough for a comeback, as "Carlitos" closed the first set 6-2 after 41 minutes.

In the second set, Alcaraz continued to be a steamroller—once again getting two consecutive breaks to start and being impeccable with his serve. The Spaniard had three match points on the return at 5-0, but Cerúndolo managed to stay alive. However, this only extended the match time slightly, as Alcaraz did not hesitate on his serve and closed out the victory 6-2, 6-1, keeping the Europeans' hopes of a comeback alive.

With a series that started Sunday at 9-3 in favor of Team World—and in which each match victory is worth three points—the Europeans, led by Carlos Alcaraz, managed to narrow the gap. The series now stands at 12-9 in favor of Team World, with only one match left to play in one of the tightest editions of the Laver Cup ever.

The German Alexander Zverev will have the responsibility of achieving the tie, for which he must secure a victory against Taylor Fritz, who had a great performance on Saturday in his win against Alcaraz. If "Sascha" gets the win, he will tie the series at 12-12, forcing a decisive one-set doubles match to determine the champion of the 2025 Laver Cup. Fritz's mission? To prevent it from going to doubles and to secure another victory against Zverev. For now, the head-to-head favors the American 8-5.