"That's a really big thing, at least for me": Alex de Minaur reveals secret behind Team World’s stunning Laver Cup turnaround

Australia’s Alex de Minaur has highlighted a unique reason which led Team World to produce some impressive results on the court on the second day of the Laver Cup. The two teams' competition is moving towards the final day, where Team World will be hoping to keep their lead intact and win the competition for the third time.

After having a disappointing opening day, Team World clean-swept day two and won all four matches. Those wins included seemingly two upset wins as well. World number one Carlos Alcaraz suffered a thumping defeat to America’s Taylor Fritz in straight sets with a score of 6-3, 6-2. It was his first win over the six-time Grand Slam winner in professional tennis at the highest level in four attempts.

The other significant result on the day was that De Minaur secured a thumping win over Germany’s Alexander Zverev. The 26-year-old came out on top against the world number three in straight sets with a score of 6-1, 6-4. It was De Minaur’s only third win over Zverev in 11 meetings. That was not the only match that De Minaur won on the day.

Later, De Minaur partnered with another Alex, Alex Michelsen of the USA, as the two handed a thumping defeat to the pair of Norway’s Casper Ruud and Denmark’s Holger Rune in straight sets with a score of 6-3, 6-4. De Minaur spoke to the media after the match, where he was asked about how Team World managed to produce so many impressive performances on the day, especially in the singles category, where they won all three matches. In response to that, De Minaur highlighted an interesting reason. De Minaur stated that, in his opinion, having a team-based competition sometimes brings the best out of the players as they are not playing only for themselves but for the team as well.

“Super happy to get the win,” said De Minaur. “It was a tough day for me yesterday. I came really close a couple of times. Honestly, just super inspired from all the boys coming out and getting straight sets wins over amazing players. Just an unbelievable day at the office for all of. Well, I think just having some of your peers just yelling for you for hours on end, I think that's a really, really big thing, at least for me. I mean, I was playing horrible yesterday, and I got really inspired by seeing everyone cheering for me. I mean, you'll have to ask my friend over here, but I think that's a big part of it. And just, you know, you're playing for more than yourself. That's another big thing.

His words were echoed by his doubles partner, Michelsen, who stated that playing for a team and seeing other professional players cheering has proven to be a motivating factor for the Team World players. “Yeah, look, I'll second what Alex [De Minaur] said,” said Michelsen. “It's about getting up for your teammates and bringing that energy. And it's, you know, ultimately, a day like today, as you said, there were upsets. So we knew that we had to come out and play a certain type of way. And we all executed and played some great tennis. So ultimately, everything kind of went our way.”

De Minaur then went on to take a dig at people who wrote off Team World after a disappointing opening day. “I mean, you know, all those analytics people, they're not on the court playing like we are,” said De Minaur. “And, you know, we talked about momentum a couple times during that match. You can feel when it's shifting. Sometimes you got to fight it off. Sometimes you got to roll with it. So it's a very real thing. I think tomorrow the momentum is not going to matter as much because it's a fresh day. And that's what they're thinking. And that's what we're going to think, too. We're going to have to go out there and compete as hard as we can and try to get a win.”