Alex de Minaur has overcome Andy Murray in a marathon Laver Cup tie to break local hearts at London’s O2 Arena.
The Australian won 5-7 6-3 10-7 in two hours and 29 minutes to open the accout of Team World against Team Europe, reducing the deficit at 2-1 to Europe after three singles ties on day one.
Both players were evenly matched with Minaur winning just one more point in the match, but the world No.22 converted three of five break points compared to Murray’s two from seven.
The lengthy opening match of the evening session had forced Roger Federer, and the O2 crowd, to wait patiently before the Swiss star could begin the final match of his career alongside old rival Rafael Nadal.
The two greats of the game will take on Jack Sock and Frances Taifoe, hoping to extend their 2-1 advantage for Team Europe over Team World.
Earlier a protester set fire to his arm during a dramatic incident which left Stefanos Tsitsipas stunned and disrupted the opening session of this year’s Cup.
The incident occurred during the second match of the Ryder Cup-style team competition at the O2 where Europe’s Tsitsipas and Diego Schwartzman of Team World were doing battle in a singles tie.
After Tsitsipas had won the first set 6-2 the spectator ran onto the court during the changeover. He set his arm ablaze before security staff were able to put the fire out with the protester ushered away.
It failed to knock world No.6 Tsitsipas off his stride with the Greek despatching Schwartzman 6-2 6-1 to put Team Europe 2-0 up at the end of the afternoon session.
But Tsitsipas admitted he was shocked.
“It came out of nowhere. I have no idea what this is all about. I never had an incident like this happen on court. I hope he is all right,” Tsitsipas said.
The protester had been wearing a t-shirt which read ‘End UK Private Jets’ before he was taken away from the court.
US Open runner-up Casper Ruud had got Team Europe off the mark earlier in the day but only after a back-and-forth encounter with Jack Sock.
Ruud eventually got the better of the American 6-4 5-7 10-7, having trailed by three points at one stage in the 10-point tie-breaker needed to decide the opener.
The Norwegian received strong support from his teammates on the bench, especially Rafael Nadal who was on hand to give the world No.2 plenty of pointers during his one-hour-and-48-minute battle on the stylish black court.
Ruud admitted: “Obviously I was focused about the match and trying to win it but it is fun, you turn around and have Rafa on one side and Roger on the other trying to help.
“I didn’t feel like I needed an unbelievable amount of help but they gave me some good tips.
“I had never played a Laver Cup tie-breaker. They said to take it one point at a time. I think it was good advice and feels a bit surreal to have them on both sides.”
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