If only clinching a victory from the jaws of a defeat had a perfect example other than Team Europe at the 2024 Laver Cup! At the start of the day, they were trailing by 4-8. And then, Ben Shelton’s incredible triumph over Daniil Medvedev brought Team World just one win away from lifting the title. However, Alexander Zverev and Carlos Alcaraz had other plans. The German made a strong comeback to win the match against Frances Tiafoe and kept the hopes alive for his team. Later on, Alcaraz sealed the deal with his emphatic victory over Taylor Fritz. Even the captain, Bjorn Borg, wasn’t too sure about their win at the start of the day. Here’s how they planned their fifth triumph.

Alexander Zverev stood up to explain the whole process. He explained how “simple” it was for them to decide who would play whom on the last day. Did Daniil Medvedev hilariously troll himself during Zverev’s speech?

So, while elaborating on their plans during Team Europe’s Press Conference, Zverev said, “The thinking was quite simple. We had a meeting last night. It was an extremely simple meeting, Carlos walked in, and he decided ‘I want to play doubles with Casper’. Then Daniil is gonna play singles against Shelton. You’re not going to lose to Tiafoe, which he had so much confidence in me I’d never had I’m my life and within myself ever and I’m going to win the deciding match, and well…“

Then Daniil Medvedev jumped into the scene claiming, “So he knew I’m going to lose right (laughs).” Then the German said, “No honestly we had like a half an hour meeting and then Carlos walked in and decided what we’re going to do and we went to do that.” So, not only on the court, Carlos Alcaraz played a crucial role in the team’s meeting as well!

Shortly after this emphatic victory, Alcaraz hugged Team Europe’s captain, Bjorn Borg, and said, “We did it for you.” Even Borg stated that he is very proud of his team. Wonderful scenes emerged from the Uber Arena as soon as Team Europe secured their incredible comeback. However, did you know that the dynamic between Zverev and Medvedev wasn’t too pleasant a year ago?

“We’re not best friends” – Daniil Medvedev reflects on the controversial moments he had with Alexander Zverev in the past

Well, Medvedev has this unique ability to draw controversies towards himself out of nowhere. For example, during his match against Ben Shelton, he was very close to being disqualified after he threw his racquet hard on the ground. The racquet then bounced on the forum and almost reached the first row of the stands inside the stadium. Several of them from Team World’s camp called for a disqualification but thankful for the Russian and Team Europe, it didn’t happen.

Then recently he was also asked to reflect a bit on how hard it was to sit on the same bench with Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas. We all witnessed a heated moment between Medvedev and Tsitsipas in 2018 when they got engaged in a post-match argument. A similar thing has also happened between him and Alexander Zverev during the QF of the 2023 Monte Carlo Masters. They were spotted having a cold handshake after their match and later on, Zverev even slammed Daniil Medvedev for being, “one of the most unfair players.“

Reflecting on those two incidents and their impact on the current status of their relationship at the Laver Cup, the Russian said, “No, to be honest, I don’t think it’s that tough, because we, for sure when we play sometimes in the press conference, we can, you know, say some things. And we’re not best friends with them, that’s reality, but I think we all have respect for each other. So we’re here, we support 100 percent each other, and honestly, at least for me, it’s an easy switch.“

He added, “So what happened with me, Sascha, Stefanos, yeah, we played some matches. Sometimes we had some fights. Sometimes someone said something in the press conference. And it’s okay.” Share your thoughts on seeing Alexander Zverev and Daniil Medvedev sharing smiles on a single bench at the Laver Cup.