"What we didn’t expect was that he was going to lose": Alexander Zverev reveals inside story of Team Europe's meeting ahead of Laver Cup decider

World number two Alexander Zverev has revealed that the Team Europe was supremely confident of winning the Laver Cup despite trailing before the start of the final day. The two-team event concluded on Sunday where Team Europe came out on top for the first time in three years with a score of 13-11.

It was Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz who threw the final punch to the Team World as he defeated America’s Taylor Fritz in the last encounter of the competition with a score of 6-2, 7-5. Just before that, world number two Germany’s Zverev came back from a set down to keep Team Europe’s hopes alive after beating America’s Frances Tiafoe with a score of 6-7, 7-5, 10-5.

The 27-year-old spoke to the media after the contest where he talked about an interesting meeting that took place the night before the final matchday where some crucial decisions were made. Zverev revealed that Team Europe was supremely confident in lifting the title despite knowing that they had to win three out of four, whereas Team World had to win just two out of four to retain the title. He also revealed that Russia’s Daniil Medvedev’s defeat to America’s Ben Shelton on Sunday, which was their only defeat on the last day of the competition, came as a big surprise to Team Europe.

“It was all pretty straightforward,” said Zverev. “We had a meeting last night all together, but it was extremely easy. Carlos (Alcaraz) came in and decided he wanted to play the doubles point with Casper (Ruud), so Daniil (Medvedev) was playing singles against Shelton. What we didn’t expect was that he was going to lose, in fact, my idea was to face the decisive point and take advantage of the confidence that I always have in this tournament. In the end, it was Carlos who decided everything, although the effort was from the whole team.”