Laver Cup: Team Europe on the back foot as Carlos Alcaraz suffers surprise loss to Taylor Fritz

Alcaraz fell to a comprehensive 6-3, 6-2 defeat to world No. 5 Fritz inside the Chase Center in San Francisco on Saturday, a first loss in four meetings against the American for the six-time Grand Slam champion.

After a successful doubles rubber alongside Jakub Mensik on Friday night, expectations were high for Alcaraz's first singles match of this year's Laver Cup, though his shock defeat - and the one-sided manner of it - added to Europe's struggles on a day where Team World took full control.

Team World won all four rubbers contested on Saturday to move into a commanding 9-3 lead overall, starting with Alex de Minaur's dominant win over Alexander Zverev to start the afternoon session.

That was followed by a straight-sets win for Francisco Cerundolo over Holger Rune in the second afternoon session match, before Alcaraz's stunning loss to Fritz started night session action.

The day concluded with Team World finishing a perfect day, with Alex Michelsen and de Minaur defeating Rune and Casper Ruud in the concluding doubles.

On paper, Team World were underdogs in all three singles rubbers, though Fritz's win over Alcaraz was undoubtedly the biggest story of the day.

And, speaking after the match, the Spaniard conceded that his opponent had played a more complete match when it came down to it.

"It wasn't the match I expected, but I must look at it a bit because I think he played great tennis," said Alcaraz.

"I just wasn't as solid as I wanted in the match, and these conditions are quite slow. The balls are very big, so I had to be solid, and I didn't play that match today.

"I talked to Taylor, who played a great match, very solid, playing aggressively when he could. Everything went well for him, so I had to congratulate him and tell him that he played much better than me.

"He was more inside the court than me. The first or second shot of the exchange was very important, and he did much better than me. That was the key because in these conditions, the first shots are very important.

"When you defend, when you run on the court, it is very difficult to reverse the situation. Going on the attack is very complicated due to the balls and the conditions, which are very slow. He was more aggressive than me. He did the first shots much better than me, and I ran more than him."

Laver Cup action this week is the first time Alcaraz has played since he returned to world No. 1, following his US Open triumph two weeks ago.

Twelve months ago, Alcaraz was the standout performer of the Laver Cup in Berlin, winning an array of ties to help Team Europe regain their title - just weeks after losing in the US Open in round two.

Despite suggestions that his deep US Open run and the pressure of the world No. 1 ranking may have impacted him, Alcaraz claimed that he only felt pressure because of Team Europe's losses early in the day.

He added: "Today I felt I had to win the point because of how the day was going, so with the two losses, I felt I had to win my match.

"There was a bit of extra pressure because of how the tie was going, but not because I'm the world number one. The ranking is just a number.

"It shouldn't give you the pressure to have to win everything. With the two losses, I felt a bit of extra pressure."

Team Europe's nightmare second day means that they will need to win all four rubbers on Sunday if they want to successfully defend their title.

Trailing 9-3, with three points available in every rubber, a victory in every clash is the only way in which they can top the 13 points required to triumph.

In contrast, Team World needs just two victories to reach 13 points, though the tournament could end with a 12-12 draw if World wins just one rubber and Europe wins the remaining three.

Alcaraz is currently set to play twice on Sunday, starting with a doubles tie alongside Ruud, the European duo taking on Michelsen and Reilly Opelka.

If Team Europe have not already secured victory, he will then return in the third match of the day to take on Cerundolo.

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