Published on, Sept. 21 -- September 21, 2025 2:38 AM

World number one Carlos Alcaraz, fresh off his US Open triumph at Flushing Meadows, eased into the Laver Cup on Friday with a doubles victory that pushed Europe's lead to 3-1 over Team World after the opening day of the global tennis event.

Spain's Alcaraz and Czech Jakub Mensik defeated Team World's US duo of Taylor Fritz and Alex Michelsen 7-6 (9/7), 6-4 in the day's closing doubles.

It was Mensik's second victory of the day, after a 6-1, 6-7 (3/7) 10-8 singles victory over Michelsen.

The Czech was broken as he served for the match in the ninth game of the second set. But after dropping the second-set tiebreaker to Michelsen he regrouped to win the 10-point match tiebreaker.

"It'...